Healthcare workers frequently report higher levels of occupational stress and lower levels of mental wellbeing relative to people in some other professions, and the COVID-19 pandemic has placed additional burdens on this population. In response, our team have partnered with the Nursing Education Workforce Research (NEWR) unit at the Prince of Wales Hospital (POWH) in Sydney, to create and deliver a new program – the ​“Thrive” program – for healthcare staff who wish to improve their mental health.

The Thrive program is based on the neuroscience of brain health and mental wellbeing, and provides educational resources on how to develop healthy habits across seven areas of life. It is currently the subject of a randomised controlled trial that aims to measure whether the wellbeing of Thrive participants increases as a result of the program.

To date, the Thrive program has been offered to all staff at POWH, and it will soon be expanded to include all healthcare workers within the SESLHD.

Team members and Funding:

Investigators on the project include A/​Prof Justine Gatt (Lead) and Dr Luke Egan from the Gatt Wellbeing & Resilience Lab at NeuRA, and Karen Tuqiri and Mary Mulcahy from the Nursing Education Workforce Research (NEWR) unit at the Prince of Wales Hospital (POWH). Funding for the trial was provided by the Mindgardens Neuroscience Network and the National Health and Medical Research Council. This trial was prospectively registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry and ethically approved by the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District (SESLHD).

Related publications:

Egan L, Mulcahy M, Tuqiri K, Gatt JM. (2022). The Thrive online wellbeing program for healthcare workers: Protocol for a randomised controlled trial. JMIR Research Protocols, 11(4): e34005. http://​dx​.doi​.org/​1​0​.​2​1​9​6​/​34005

Data analysis in progress.