Can a personalised feedback report increase doctors' ability and willingness to continue working, their employability, and their proactive behaviours?
| ISRCTN | ISRCTN36592434 |
|---|---|
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN36592434 |
- Submission date
- 17/05/2021
- Registration date
- 20/05/2021
- Last edited
- 20/05/2021
- Recruitment status
- No longer recruiting
- Overall study status
- Completed
- Condition category
- Other
Plain English summary of protocol
Background and study aims
Physicians work in a highly dynamic and demanding context, challenging their employability (i.e. their ability and willingness to continue to work). This work environment requires employees to proactively take control over their working life and employability. This can be done through job crafting behaviour. This study aimed to examine the effects of a personalized feedback report on physicians’ perceptions of their employability and their job crafting behaviour.
Who can participate?
All physicians working in two hospitals in the Netherlands
What does the study involve?
Participating physicians were randomly assigned to a waitlist control or intervention group. Physicians in the intervention group received a low-investment intervention for 8 weeks. This entailed access to a personalized feedback report with their employability scores and suggestions to improve these and to engage in job crafting. Participants completed a pre-test and eight weeks later a post-test.
What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
Possible benefits of this study are a moment of reflection on employability and proactive work behaviours. Participants further get access to a personalized feedback report giving insights into one's employability and advice about possible actions to undertake in order to enhance employability or stimulate proactivity. There are no risks of participating. Physicians do have to invest some time in participating in this study, as they are asked to complete the pre- and post-test, and the survey which is used to generate the personalized feedback report.
Where is the study run from?
University Medical Centre Utrecht and Diakonessenhuis Utrecht (Netherlands)
When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
January 2019 to September 2019
Who is funding the study?
University Medical Centre Utrecht (Netherlands)
Who is the main contact?
Evelien van Leeuwen, e.h.vanleeuwen@umcutrecht.nl
Contact information
Scientific
Heidelberglaan 100
Utrecht
3584 CX
Netherlands
 ORCID ID |
0000-0002-1239-3126 |
|---|---|
| Phone | +31 (0)30 253 81 01 |
| e.h.vanleeuwen@umcutrecht.nl |
Study information
| Study design | Randomized controlled intervention study with quantitative pre- and post-test assessment |
|---|---|
| Primary study design | Interventional |
| Secondary study design | Randomised controlled trial |
| Study setting(s) | Hospital |
| Study type | Other |
| Participant information sheet | Not available in web format, please use the contact details to request a patient information sheet. |
| Scientific title | Intervention study into stimulating employability and job crafting behaviour of physicians |
| Study objectives | Research question: What are the effects of providing a personalized feedback report to physicians on their perceptions of employability (i.e. the ability and willingness to continue working until retirement age) and job crafting behaviours? Hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: At Time 2, physicians in the intervention group will report higher levels of physical ability to continue to work (a), mental ability to continue to work (b) and willingness to continue to work (c), compared to Time 1 as well as to a control group. Hypothesis 2: At Time 2, physicians in the intervention group will report higher levels of job crafting towards strengths (a), job crafting towards interests (b), job crafting to decrease hindering job demands (c) and job crafting to increase social job resources (d), compared to Time 1 as well as to a control group. |
| Ethics approval(s) | The University Medical Center Utrecht confirmed that formal ethical approval was not required as this study falls outside the scope of the Dutch Law on Medical Research (WMO) (University Medical Center Utrecht: Heidelberglaan 100, 3584 CX Utrecht, Netherlands; +31 (0)88 75 56 376; metc@umcutrecht.nl), ref: METC 2019, 19/109/C |
| Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied | Employability and proactive work behaviours (i.e. job crafting and career self-management) of physicians |
| Intervention | Physicians were randomized into the intervention or waitlist control group. Physicians were assigned to a group through blocked randomisation with the hospital as a blocking factor. Physicians in the intervention group received a low-investment intervention for 8 weeks. This entailed access to a personalized feedback report with their employability scores and suggestions to improve these and to engage in job crafting. Physicians completed a survey. Their personal answers were translated into a feedback report. This personal feedback report consisted of approximately eight pages and provided a visual overview of a participant’s scores on 1) their actual work situation, showing their perception of their current ability and willingness to work, 2) the future work situation, showing their perception of internal and external career opportunities, 3) personal resources and 4) job demands and resources, including an indication of whether these scores were low, average or high. Additionally, a personalized set of examples of different sorts of job crafting behaviours was given. Physicians could decide on their own how much time they wanted to spend on reading the feedback report and possible follow-up actions. Physicians in the waitlist control group did not receive an intervention. They got access to the personalized feedback report after the study was finished, for ethical reasons. |
| Intervention type | Behavioural |
| Primary outcome measure | The following items were measured in the pre- and post-test (8 weeks later): 1. Employability is measured using the items from Oude Hengel et al. (2012). Employability. The items from Oude Hengel et al. (2012a) were used to examine physicians’ ability and willingness to continue working until retirement age. Ability was measured with two items: “I am [physically (item 1)/ mentally (item 2)] able to continue to work until the age of 67 in my current profession”. Willingness was measured with one item: “I am willing to continue to work until the age of 67 in my current profession”. Answers were given on a 5-point Likert scale (1=totally disagree, 5=totally agree). 2. Job crafting is measured with the scales from Kooij et al. (2017) and Tims et al. (2012). Job crafting. Perceptions of job crafting behaviour are measured using two scales. The scale of Kooij et al. (2017) focusses on job crafting directed to the person. This scale is used to measure job crafting towards strengths (4 items, e.g. “I organise my work in such a way that it matches with my strengths”), and job crafting towards interests (5 items, e.g. “I actively look for tasks that match my own interests”). The scale of Tims et al. (2012) emphasizes job crafting regarding work aspects. This scale measures job crafting to increase social job resources (4 items, e.g. “I ask others for feedback on my job performance”) and job crafting to decrease hindering job demands (6 items, e.g. “I organise my work in such a way to make sure that I do not have to concentrate for too long a period at once”). |
| Secondary outcome measures | Age, gender, type of employment contract, hours worked according to the contract, functional and organizational tenure were measured in the pretest using a questionnaire |
| Overall study start date | 01/01/2019 |
| Completion date | 01/09/2019 |
Eligibility
| Participant type(s) | Health professional |
|---|---|
| Age group | Adult |
| Sex | Both |
| Target number of participants | 120 participants, 60 in each group. |
| Total final enrolment | 165 |
| Key inclusion criteria | All medical specialists in two hospitals were allowed to participate in this study. |
| Key exclusion criteria | Other function than medical specialist. |
| Date of first enrolment | 11/03/2019 |
| Date of final enrolment | 15/05/2019 |
Locations
Countries of recruitment
- Netherlands
Study participating centres
Utrecht
3584 CX
Netherlands
Utrecht
3582 KE
Netherlands
Sponsor information
Hospital/treatment centre
Heidelberglaan 100
Utrecht
3584 CX
Netherlands
| Phone | +31 (0)88 755 5555 |
|---|---|
| info@umcutrecht.nl | |
| Website | https://www.umcutrecht.nl/ |
"ROR" |
https://ror.org/0575yy874 |
Funders
Funder type
Hospital/treatment centre
Private sector organisation / Universities (academic only)
- Alternative name(s)
- UMC Utrecht, UMC
- Location
- Netherlands
Results and Publications
| Intention to publish date | 01/06/2021 |
|---|---|
| Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to share | Yes |
| IPD sharing plan summary | Available on request |
| Publication and dissemination plan | Planned publication in a high-impact peer-reviewed journal in the field of public health. |
| IPD sharing plan | The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are/will be available upon reasonable request from (anonymized data that is being discussed in the article of this study can be requested from the author Evelien van Leeuwen, via e.h.vanleeuwen@umcutrecht.nl) |
Editorial Notes
20/05/2021: Internal review.
18/05/2021: Trial's existence confirmed by University Medical Center Utrecht.
