Research project - RESTORE
Clinicians working in palliative care settings commonly experience stress and distress. Despite this, evidence-based psychological support is lacking.
In Autumn 2021, the study team conducted a feasibility study of Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) based psychological intervention to help hospice staff to manage work-related stress and distress. The intervention was called RESTORE (Research Evaluating Staff Training Online for Resilience) and was delivered to 25 palliative care staff. They found that RESTORE was acceptable to staff and linked to improvements in mental wellbeing. However, this was a small study involving only two hospices, and no comparison group. Consequently, the team did not know if RESTORE could improve mental wellbeing compared to usual wellbeing support. A larger study was needed to determine whether Acceptance and Commitment Training, delivered online, improves palliative care staff wellbeing, what underpins this and for whom it is most effective.
Therefore, a second trial was devised. The team will now conduct a cluster randomised controlled trial comparing RESTORE to usual staff wellbeing support resources for palliative care staff. Hospice sites (clusters) will be randomly allocated to the intervention (RESTORE training) or the control condition (i.e. usual hospice wellbeing support).
Project lead:
Dr David Gillanders and Dr Anne Finucane, University of Edinburgh
Study Team: Alix Macdonald – Trail Manager, Phillip Rayson – Asst Trial Manager, Dr Anne Canny, Research Fellow
Local lead:
Alison Beattie, Strategy and Development Administrator, St Oswald’s Hospice
January 2026
The primary objective is to evaluate the efficacy of RESTORE plus usual support for staff mental wellbeing in comparison to usual support alone at week 24 (12 weeks post-intervention completion).
The secondary objectives are to evaluate the efficacy of RESTORE plus usual support, in comparison to usual support alone in improving staff burnout, depression, anxiety and stress; and reducing intention to leave at week 24 (12 weeks post-intervention completion).
A further objective is to test the mechanism of action of RESTORE by evaluating if improvements in primary and secondary outcomes are mediated by improvements in psychological flexibility and / or stress-prone thinking between baseline and week 24.
National. Randomised Controlled Trial of 10-20 clinical staff at each cluster.