Study Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of a Psychosocial Care Intervention in Intensive Care

This Pilot-RCT is part of a feasibility study that aims to learn if the IPS-psychosocial care intervention and an RCT on its efficacy are feasible in patients, relatives and staff on icu wards. The Pilot-RCT will examine outcomes, that might indicate an improvement in psychosocial safety climate and other health- and wellbeing-related measures due to the administration of the intervention that is described in the following. The main question the Pilot-RCT aims to answer is:

Is there evidence that the IPS intervention improves the psychosocial safety climate and other components of psychosocial well-being in ICU teams, patients and their relatives?

Researchers will compare four intervention groups (icu wards with implementation of the IPS-Intervention) with four control groups (icu wards with regular supply of psychosocial care) to see if the comparison of two groups in this RCT is feasible.

The IPS-Intervention consists of a ward psychologist who works as part of the ICU team and takes care of the staff, patients and relatives in accordance to the intervention manual that was developed in a prior phase of this project.