CONHECTATE, a study for promote mental health in healthcare professionals

The professors of the University of Navarra, Elena Bermejo Martins, from the School of Nursing, and Elkin Luis García, from the School of Education and Psychology, have launched CONHECTATE, a multicentre study at national level, aimed at students and professionals, to find outwhat are the key factors in the promotion of mental health in health professionals in Nursing, Psychology and Medicine. 

This study arose from the need to offer healthcare professionals from the aforementioned groups emotional intelligence tools that enable them to acquire personal resources to be able to cope with different situations of stress and emotional demand. These tools allow them to preserve their own self-care as well as provide essential skills for quality care. "The professional practice of healthcare areas such as nursing, medicine and psychology, due to their strong link with care, entails the exhibition to different risk factors, which can favour the appearance of mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression or the well-known burnout syndrome, among many other consequences", says Elena Bermejo, co-manager of this project of research. 

"Healthcare professionals with adequate emotional intelligence are more effective in healthcare contexts, report lower levels of stress and perform more confidently and successfully in their healthcare role," explains Elkin Luis, co-manager of project from research. 

In this way, the researchers have set in motion a research project survey whose goal is to identify as many key personal and contextual factors as possible in the development of these skills, in a sample representative of the three groups in both their training and professional stages. This first phase of the study is crucial for the subsequent design of an intervention programme adapted to the real needs of healthcare professionals in the three disciplines. To this end, two types of survey have been designed, one aimed at students and the other at professionals. In addition to contributing to the development of this project by completing the survey, participants will find in it a way of reflecting and identifying keys to maintaining their health and well-being. Furthermore, at the end of the survey, they will be offered the possibility of participating in a second session where the Mayer Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence test (MSCEIT) will be applied.

To encourage people to participate, 12 AMAFIT activity tracker watches will be raffled among all participants and will be handed out at the end of the recruitment. 

This interdisciplinary project is led jointly by the department of Community and Maternal and Child Nursing, of the School of Nursing and the School of Education and Psychology, both of the University of Navarra. In addition, it is carried out with the partnership of the School of Medicine of the University of Navarra and the respective Schools of the University of the Basque Country, the Autonomous University of Madrid, and the University of Malaga. 

→ Access to survey students 

→ Access to survey professionals

→ Video about the project