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

NCT ID: NCT03811990

Last Updated: 2019-01-24

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: UNKNOWN
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 100 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2018-12-19
• Study Completion Date: 2020-06-01

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.

Conditions

Burnout, Professional; Depression; Anxiety; Stress

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Control

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Intervention

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Cleveland Clinic Stress Free Now Meditations For Healers

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Phone-based meditation application

Interventions

Cleveland Clinic Stress Free Now Meditations For Healers

Phone-based meditation application

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 75 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University of Texas at Austin

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Keith Lambert, MD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Texas at Austin

Locations

University of Texas Austin

Austin, Texas, United States

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

United States

Central Contacts

Keith Lambert, MD

Role: CONTACT

KLambert@asecnsion.org

7206294136

Facility Contacts

Keith Lambert, MD

Role: primary

KLambert@asecnsion.org

720-629-4136 ext. 7206294136

References

Coulon SM, Monroe CM, West DS. A Systematic, Multi-domain Review of Mobile Smartphone Apps for Evidence-Based Stress Management. Am J Prev Med. 2016 Jul;51(1):95-105. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2016.01.026. Epub 2016 Mar 15.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 26993534 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

2018-04-0089

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id