Healthcare providers' perceived support from their organization is associated with lower burnout and anxiety amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Professional burnout represents a significant threat to the American healthcare system. Organizational and individual factors may increase healthcare providers' susceptibility or resistance to burnout. We hypothesized that during the COVID-19 pandemic, 1) higher levels of perceived organizational support (POS) are associated with lower risk for burnout and anxiety, and 2) anxiety mediates the association between POS and burnout. METHODS: In this longitudinal prospective study, we surveyed healthcare providers employed full-time at a large, multihospital healthcare system monthly over 6 months (April to November 2020). Participants were randomized using a 1:1 allocation stratified by provider type, gender, and academic hospital status to receive one of two versions of the survey instrument formulated with different ordering of the measures to minimize response bias due to context effects. The exposure of interest was POS measured using the validated 8-item Survey of POS (SPOS) scale. Primary outcomes of interest were anxiety and risk for burnout as measured by the validated 10-item Burnout scale from the Professional Quality (Pro-QOL) instrument and 4-item Emotional Distress-Anxiety short form of the Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) scale, respectively. Linear mixed models evaluated the associations between POS and both burnout and anxiety. A mediation analysis evaluated whether anxiety mediated the POS-burnout association. RESULTS: Of the 538 participants recruited, 402 (75%) were included in the primary analysis. 55% of participants were physicians, 73% 25-44 years of age, 73% female, 83% White, and 44% had ≥1 dependent. Higher POS was significantly associated with a lower risk for burnout (-0.23; 95% CI -0.26, -0.21; p<0.001) and lower degree of anxiety (-0.07; 95% CI -0.09, -0.06; p = 0.010). Anxiety mediated the associated between POS and burnout (direct effect -0.17; 95% CI -0.21, -0.13; p<0.001; total effect -0.23; 95% CI -0.28, -0.19; p<0.001). CONCLUSION: During a health crisis, increasing the organizational support perceived by healthcare employees may reduce the risk for burnout through a reduction in anxiety. Improving the relationship between healthcare organizations and the individuals they employ may reduce detrimental effects of psychological distress among healthcare providers and ultimately improve patient care.

Association of Prehospital Plasma With Survival in Patients With Traumatic Brain Injury: A Secondary Analysis of the PAMPer Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Prehospital plasma administration improves survival in injured patients at risk for hemorrhagic shock and transported by air ambulance. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death following trauma, but few early interventions improve outcomes. Objective: To assess the association between prehospital plasma and survival in patients with TBI. Design, Setting, and Participants: The Prehospital Air Medical Plasma (PAMPer) trial was a pragmatic, multicenter, phase 3, cluster randomized clinical trial involving injured patients who were at risk for hemorrhagic shock during air medical transport to a trauma center. The trial was conducted at 6 US sites with 9 level-I trauma centers (comprising 27 helicopter emergency services bases). The original trial analyzed 501 patients, including 230 patients who were randomized to receive plasma and 271 randomized to standard care resuscitation. This secondary analysis of a predefined subgroup included patients with TBI. Data analysis was performed from October 2019 to February 2020. Interventions: Patients were randomized to receive standard care fluid resuscitation or 2 units of thawed plasma. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was mortality at 30 days. Patients with TBI were prespecified as a subgroup for secondary analysis and for measurement of markers of brain injury. The 30-day survival benefit of prehospital plasma in subgroups with and without TBI as diagnosed by computed tomography was characterized using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazard regression. Results: In total, 166 patients had TBI (median [interquartile range] age, 43.00 [25.00-59.75] years; 125 men [75.3%]). When compared with the 92 patients who received standard care, the 74 patients with TBI who received prehospital plasma had improved 30-day survival even after adjustment for multiple confounders and assessment of the degree of brain injury with clinical variables and biomarkers (hazard ratio [HR], 0.55; 95% CI, 0.33-0.94; P = .03). Receipt of prehospital plasma was associated with improved survival among patients with TBI with a prehospital Glasgow Coma Scale score of less than 8 (HR, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.35-0.91) and those with polytrauma (HR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.28-0.89). Patients with TBI transported from the scene of injury had improved survival following prehospital plasma administration (HR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.26-0.80; P = .005), whereas patients who were transferred from an outside hospital showed no difference in survival for the plasma intervention (HR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.33-3.00; P = .99). Conclusions and Relevance: These findings are exploratory, but they suggest that receipt of prehospital plasma is associated with improved survival in patients with computed tomography-positive TBI. The prehospital setting may be a critical period to intervene in the care of patients with TBI. Future studies are needed to confirm the clinical benefits of early plasma resuscitation following TBI and concomitant polytrauma. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01818427.

Long-gap peripheral nerve repair through sustained release of a neurotrophic factor in nonhuman primates.

Severe injuries to peripheral nerves are challenging to repair. Standard-of-care treatment for nerve gaps >2 to 3 centimeters is autografting; however, autografting can result in neuroma formation, loss of sensory function at the donor site, and increased operative time. To address the need for a synthetic nerve conduit to treat large nerve gaps, we investigated a biodegradable poly(caprolactone) (PCL) conduit with embedded double-walled polymeric microspheres encapsulating glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) capable of providing a sustained release of GDNF for >50 days in a 5-centimeter nerve defect in a rhesus macaque model. The GDNF-eluting conduit (PCL/GDNF) was compared to a median nerve autograft and a PCL conduit containing empty microspheres (PCL/Empty). Functional testing demonstrated similar functional recovery between the PCL/GDNF-treated group (75.64 ± 10.28%) and the autograft-treated group (77.49 ± 19.28%); both groups were statistically improved compared to PCL/Empty-treated group (44.95 ± 26.94%). Nerve conduction velocity 1 year after surgery was increased in the PCL/GDNF-treated macaques (31.41 ± 15.34 meters/second) compared to autograft (25.45 ± 3.96 meters/second) and PCL/Empty (12.60 ± 3.89 meters/second) treatment. Histological analyses included assessment of Schwann cell presence, myelination of axons, nerve fiber density, and g-ratio. PCL/GDNF group exhibited a statistically greater average area occupied by individual Schwann cells at the distal nerve (11.60 ± 33.01 µm2) compared to autograft (4.62 ± 3.99 µm2) and PCL/Empty (4.52 ± 5.16 µm2) treatment groups. This study demonstrates the efficacious bridging of a long peripheral nerve gap in a nonhuman primate model using an acellular, biodegradable nerve conduit.