Does a Phone-based Meditation Application Improve Mental Wellness in Emergency Medicine Personnel?

Not Applicable

• Conditions: Anxiety; Stress; Depression; Burnout, Professional
• Interventions: Behavioral: Cleveland Clinic Stress Free Now Meditations For Healers

• Registration Number: NCT03811990
• Lead Sponsor: University of Texas at Austin

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.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2018-12-19
• Status Verified: 2019-01
• Study First Submitted: 2019-01-16
• Study First Submitted QC: 2019-01-17
• Study First Posted: 2019-01-22
• Last Update Submitted: 2019-01-22
• Last Update Posted: 2019-01-24
• Primary Completion: 2019-08-01
• Study Completion: 2020-06-01

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: UNKNOWN
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 100

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

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Intervention	Cleveland Clinic Stress Free Now Meditations For Healers	-

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
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
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 depression score	90 and 180 days	Beck Depression Inventory, numeric score of 0-63 with a score of 63 being the most depressed

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University of Texas Austin; 🇺🇸 Austin, Texas, United States