The Apollo 2028 mission

A group of nurses and doctors walking in a hospital corridor

We are on a mission to understand resilience and provide solutions to healthcare workers mental health issues

Welcome to Apollo 2028, a groundbreaking 4-year initiative generously funded by the European Union. With a collaborative effort spanning 12 partners across 8 countries, we are dedicated to unraveling the complexities surrounding healthcare worker resilience in challenging environments

At Apollo 2028, we are pioneering a comprehensive approach to understanding resilience by examining its multifaceted influences at the individual, group, and organizational levels. Through an unparalleled panel of doctors and nurses across 8 countries, we aim to collect invaluable data that will revolutionize our understanding of healthcare worker resilience.
‍
Our mission extends beyond research. Armed with insights gleaned from our data, we are committed to developing innovative solutions to bolster the mental health and well-being of healthcare workers. By collaborating closely with individuals and healthcare organization managers, we seek to implement strategies that promote resilience and foster a supportive work environment.

The Apollo 2028 research focus

We will conduct a comprehensive research project to advance the scientific community knowledge about resilience and mental health in the healthcare sector.

Research on the factors influencing healhcare workers resilience

Individual factors

We initiate our study by collecting baseline physiological data using the innovative Human Health Passport approach. Our tailored survey is finely tuned to the intricacies of the healthcare system, ensuring relevant and impactful insights. With two rounds of data collection, we unravel longitudinal aspects, tracking physiological data while delving into the nuanced realm of mental health variables. At the end of year 3, we analyze this treasure trove of data to decipher the individual factors significantly impacting the resilience levels of our healthcare heroes.

Team factors

In this phase, we delve into meso-organizational level factors, exploring healthcare team dynamics, middle-management characteristics, and more. Our focus includes communication, attitude, leadership style, and team resilience. We begin with a comprehensive scoping review, identifying existing models that illuminate mental health, well-being, and resilience. We then move on to primary data collection, employing semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and surveys across hospitals in Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Sweden, and the US.
‍
How are we navigating this terrain? We're kicking off with a comprehensive scoping review, identifying existing models that illuminate mental health, well-being, and resilience in health and care workers. Armed with this knowledge, we will move on to primary data collection, employing a mix of semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and surveys. But that is not all! Our canvas is vast, encompassing hospitals from diverse geographical points—Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Sweden, and the US.

Organizational factors

Our focus shifts to organizational level variables, exploring the impact of professional norms, codes of practices, financial structures, and regulatory frameworks on individual resilience. We conduct an extensive literature review, engage in insightful focus groups and semi-structured interviews, and follow up with a survey to collect quantitative data. Our objective is to understand how organizational elements shape the resilience of healthcare professionals across diverse geographical points.
‍
Our objective is crystal clear: to decipher the intricate web of organizational factors influencing the resilience of healthcare workers.

Interplays

Drawing upon results from individual, team, and organizational factors, we delve into the intricate dynamics connecting these levels of resilience. Our mission is to identify how the interaction between individual, team, and organizational factors influences resilience. Insights from parallel literature reviews inform a new framework capturing the essence of resilience at each level.

Study of the economic factors

We evaluate economic intricacies, assessing investment amounts, costs generated, and costs avoided. Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) guides our evaluation process, ensuring healthcare system stakeholders gain access to innovative solutions along with a comprehensive review of cost-effectiveness.

Solutions to mental health issues

We will co-create innovative solutions for mental health, addressing individual, team, and organizational needs.
We will apply the Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) for understanding complex systems.
We will use User-Centered Design principles for software development.

AI support tool

Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) offers a robust framework for developing insights, predictions, and theories about organizational processes. In today's era of big data, ABMs are increasingly data-driven, calibrated against individual and organizational-level data using Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods.

‍Our Approach:
‍In our project, we adopt an approach where the theoretical framework of the model is informed by established theories, while the actual rules are derived from data using machine learning techniques. This ensures that our models are grounded in both theory and empirical evidence.

‍User-Centered Design (UCD) Principles:
‍Guided by User-Centered Design (UCD) principles, we prioritize the needs and experiences of end users, such as managers and directors. They play a central role in the co-creation process, starting with mapping user needs to ensure that the tool effectively addresses their challenges and aligns with their expectations.

‍Iterative Prototyping:
‍End users participate in iterative prototyping of the tool, providing feedback at each stage of development. This collaborative approach ensures that the tool is perceived as meaningful, effective, and user-friendly, meeting the specific needs and preferences of our end users.

Training

Managers and directors play a pivotal role in nurturing employee well-being and psychological capital (psy cap). To support the resilience of healthcare professionals, we propose a tailored training program designed specifically for managers and directors.

‍Rationale:
‍Extensive literature underscores the significant impact managers have on employee well-being. Recognizing this, our training program aims to equip managers and directors with the tools and strategies needed to foster resilience among healthcare professionals.

‍Evaluation Methodology: Controlled Before-and-After (CBA) Study
‍The effectiveness of our training program will be assessed through a controlled before-and-after (CBA) study. Non-randomized study designs, particularly CBA studies using aggregate-level data, are increasingly utilized to evaluate policies and programs across various sectors, including healthcare.

‍Study Design:
‍In this controlled before-and-after study, outcomes will be measured before and after the implementation of the training program in both the group receiving the training and the group not receiving the training. This rigorous evaluation approach allows us to assess the impact of the training program on key outcomes related to healthcare professional resilience.