How can NHS trusts in England optimise strategies to improve the mental health and well-being of hospital doctors? The Care Under Pressure 3 (CUP3) realist evaluation study protocol

Care Under Pressure is an interdisciplinary research programme that aims to understand the causes of mental ill-health and well-being in health professionals,across specialties and career stages, and make informed recommendations to tackle this problem.

The growing incidence of mental ill-health in doctors was a major issue in the UK and internationally, even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.It has significant and far-reaching implications, including poor quality or inconsistent patient care, absenteeism, workforce attrition and retention issues, presenteeism, and increased risk of suicide.Existing approaches to workplace support do not take into account the individual, organisational and social factors contributing to mental ill-health in doctors, nor how interventions/programmes might interact with each other within the workplace.The aim of this study is to work collaboratively with eight purposively selected National Health Service (NHS) trusts within England to develop an evidence-based implementation toolkit for all NHS trusts to reduce doctors’ mental ill-health and its impacts on the workforce.

Care Under Pressure 3 extends the work of the previous 2Care Under Pressure Projects focusing on doctors working in acute hospital trusts, this work is ongoing &finishes July 2024.https://sites.exeter.ac.uk/careunderpressure/

Care Under pressure 3-Optimising delivery &impacts of interventions to reduce hospital doctors’ mental ill-health

Care Under Pressure 2-Caring for the Carers: a realist review of interventions to minimise the incidence of mental ill-health in nurses, midwives and paramedics

Care Under Pressure 1-A realist review of interventions to tackle doctors’ mental ill-health and its impacts on workforce & patient care

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