Procedures

Two online questionnaires that were designed and published on the Chinese Star Survey website were used. The first online questionnaires were answered before online psychological intervention. These contained questions on demographics; work conditions, including communication time during working, working environment and number of night shifts per month; health conditions, which was divided into healthy, average, and poor; and burnout and mental health conditions using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21), respectively. According to results of the first online questionnaires, medical residents with a total MBI score between 50 and 75 were selected to receive an online psychological intervention for 3 months. After the online psychological intervention, they were required to complete the second online questionnaires. These contained questions on 22 items of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and 21 items of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21). In order to ensure the research subject's privacy and ensure that the information obtained is true and credible, when we recruited research subjects, we promised not to disclose the personal information to any person or organization. Second, because medical students were recruited, they had a certain understanding of psychological problems; thus, the degree of stigma will be lower. Finally, our experts are trained and qualified professionals in psychology who were capable of reducing the stigma by providing psychological education. Three psychological experts from our team discussed with the department leaders and designed an online psychological intervention scheme. The components of the online psychological intervention included:

(1) Mindfulness decompression intervention: medical residents with a total MBI score between 50 and 75 participated in an 8-week 30–45 min abridged mindfulness decompression intervention. In the program, videos of stretching and audios instructions for performing a body scan and sitting meditation were provided to the participants to guide them through their exercises.

Psychoeducation: The counselors helped medical residents increase their self-confidence, identify their potential talents, and relieve mental stress through QQ, WeChat. At length, an anonymous communication platform was provided under the guidance of our professional psychologists once a week. Each psychological education duration was 1–3 h. In this type of network communication, the individual's problems were identified, and targeted psychotherapy was then provided.

Because of the epidemic, many online communication software, such as QQ, Tiktok and wechat, are becoming more and more perfectin China. More and more people relieve pressure through this form of network communication.We use this popular model to provide an anonymous communication platform under the guidance of our professional psychologists, so as to achieve the purpose of relieving stress.