An interprofessional collaborative approach to alleviate workplace stress among medical college faculty during COVID pandemic

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: Job and stress are not mutually exclusive; in fact, stress is inherent to job. In the present era of COVID pandemic, working as health care providers may entail highest levels of stress leading to burnout. Thus, affecting work efficiency of faculty, in turn reflecting on students’ performance and health care services to patients. However, de-stressors like yoga and art-based interventions are scarce and not well documented to date. Hence, the present study was undertaken to determine the efficacy of stress alleviating yoga and creative art therapy through interprofessional collaborative approach. Methods: Sixty medical faculty of either gender aging 30-60 years, were randomly divided into two equal groups - control and intervention group. The intervention group underwent yoga and creative art therapy for 10 days duration each. International stress management association (ISMA) stress questionnaire and Kessler’s psychological distress (K-10) scale were administered before and post-intervention, to compare the stress levels. Blood pressure (BP), pulse rate, body mass index (BMI) and waist hip ratio (WHR) were also measured. Comparative analysis of pre-post test scores was done using Student’s paired ‘t’ test. Results: According to ISMA and K-10 scores, the intervention group showed statistically significant (p 0.05) decrease in stress levels among faculty. However, BP, BMI and WHR didn’t show any significant change after the intervention. Conclusion: Yoga and art therapy were proved to be beneficial in reducing the stress levels among faculty significantly. Comparative analysis also showed significant reduction irrespective of their gender and specialty.