Abstract
<p>BackgroundHealthcare workers experience significant levels of burnout, psychological distress, and compassion fatigue. Peer support programs are increasingly used as organizational strategies to strengthen workforce well-being; however, limited research has examined the impact of these programs on the healthcare workers trained to provide peer support.ObjectiveTo evaluate the Care for the Caregiver (CFC) peer support program in relation to burnout, secondary traumatic stress, compassion satisfaction, and confidence and comfort supporting health care peer colleagues in distress.MethodsA convergent mixed-methods evaluation was conducted among healthcare workers trained in the CFC program within an academic medical enterprise between 2023 and 2025. Quantitative outcomes were assessed using pre-training and three-month post-training surveys that included the Professional Quality of Life Scale Version 5 (ProQOL-5) and two Likert-scale items measuring comfort and confidence supporting distressed colleagues. Qualitative data were collected through interviews and focus groups, and analyzed thematically using the Knowledge-Attitudes-Behaviors framework. Quantitative and qualitative findings were integrated through triangulation.ResultsAmong matched respondents (N=18), burnout decreased from 2.35 to 1.73 (mean change, -0.63; p=.01), and secondary traumatic stress decreased from 2.32 to 1.58 (mean change, -0.74; p&lt;.001), while compassion satisfaction remained stable. Comfort supporting colleagues increased from 4.00 to 4.39 (p=.035), and confidence using psychological support skills increased from 3.56 to 4.28 (p&lt;.001). Qualitative findings suggested improved recognition of distress, greater clarity about the peer caregiver role, enhanced boundary setting, and increased confidence using supportive communication skills as a result of the CFC training.ConclusionFindings suggest that structured peer support training may strengthen healthcare workers’ confidence, coping capacity, and ability to support colleagues while reducing burnout and secondary traumatic stress among peer caregivers. These findings provide preliminary evidence that the CFC model may represent a feasible and promising organizational strategy for strengthening healthcare workforce well-being through enhanced peer support capacity, improved emotional resilience and helping practices, although these findings should be confirmed in larger controlled studies.</p>