Anxiety, Burnout, Professional, Depression, Stress
Conditions
Brief summary
Emergency medicine is notorious for its high rate of burnout and mental health issues. The emergency department (ED) is a high paced work environment dealing with life and death issues. Employees in the ED work shift times that are not conducive to a natural circadian rhythm. All of these factors lead to high rates of burnout and overall dissatisfaction with their career choice. These are known downsides of a career in emergency medicine, but little effort is put into addressing this issue in everyday EDs. Cell phones offer an easy and convenient means to participate in meditation. There are multiple evidence-based meditation apps available to cell phone users free of charge. Meditation has been shown to decrease burnout, rates of depression, and rates of anxiety. We hypothesize that weekly use of a meditation-based cell phone application will improve the mental health of emergency department employees as measured on various wellness inventories.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALCleveland Clinic Stress Free Now Meditations For Healers
Phone-based meditation application
Sponsors
University of Texas at Austin
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
NONE
Intervention model description
Randomized, non-blinded, control trial
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 75 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Employment in the Emergency Department (with at least 8 shifts a month at Dell Seton Medical Center or Seton Medical Center) as either an attending physician, resident physician, or nurse * Age greater than/equal to 18 years old and younger than 75 years old * Must own a mobile phone operating on the iOS system
Exclusion criteria
* Already use a phone-based meditation app on a weekly basis * Currently undergoing psychological treatment in the form of weekly therapy or psychotropic medications
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in depression score | 90 and 180 days | Beck Depression Inventory, numeric score of 0-63 with a score of 63 being the most depressed |
| Change in anxiety score | 90 and 180 days | Beck Anxiety Inventory, numeric score of 0-63 with a score of 63 being the most anxious |
| Change in stress levels | 90 and 180 days | Perceived Stress Scale, numeric score of 0-40 with a score of 40 being the most stressed |
| Change in burnout level | 90 and 180 days, numeric scale between 0 and 6 with 6 being the highest score | Maslach Burnout Inventory, measures level of stress on a numeric scale |
Countries
United States
Contacts
Primary ContactKeith Lambert, MD
Outcome results
None listed