Compassion-Centered Spiritual Health for Faculty and Staff

NCT ID: NCT04060901

Last Updated: 2020-05-14

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 58 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2019-08-23
• Study Completion Date: 2020-02-07

Brief Summary

Compassion-Centered Spiritual Health (CCSH) at Emory University was launched as a joint creation by Spiritual Health and the Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics in 2018. The program enhances the practice of spiritual health through CCSH Interventions, which are a Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT)-based approach to support the practices of spiritual health clinicians. CBCT is a research-based contemplative program developed at Emory University in 2004. CCSH Interventions are provided by spiritual health clinicians across Emory's inpatient and outpatient facilities and beyond, and offer a method to alleviate distress in patients and families and to mitigate burnout in healthcare professionals. While the intervention will be required for some staff and provider populations, Spiritual Health proposes to pilot a voluntary systematic implementation of CCSH Interventions for Teams (CCSH-TI) to clinical research teams at Winship Cancer Institute. Clinical Research Coordinators (CRCs) experience significant emotional and spiritual burden through exposure to patients living with cancer and undergoing clinical trials for cancer treatment. As individuals and teams, CRCs face multiple work-related challenges known to cause distress, including experiences of secondary trauma, exposure to emotional and spiritual suffering of patients and families, and experiences of loss of patients. The researchers of this study hope that offering CCSH Interventions for Teams to CRCs will increase their resilience, wellbeing and compassion toward self and others, with a secondary benefit that burnout will be reduced. By conducting this pilot project, the researchers hope to gain a better understanding of how to optimally implement CCSH for CRC teams at the Winship Cancer Institute.

Detailed Description

Previous research indicates that Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT) improves empathic accuracy, enhances well-being, and attenuates the pro-inflammatory response to psychosocial stress. CBCT is a secularized compassion meditation program adapted from the Tibetan Buddhist mind training (lojong) tradition, and it may be an ideal addendum to the spiritual caregiving provided by Emory University hospital chaplains and chaplain residents to approximately 100,000 patients, staff, and faculty members each year.

With this in mind, The Emory University Spiritual Health department now incorporates CBCT into their training curriculum using a phased approach that began in Fall 2017. The Spiritual Health department also developed an adapted program based on CBCT principles that chaplains can then deliver to patients and staff, called Compassion-Centered Spiritual Health (CCSH). Spiritual Health proposes to pilot a systematic implementation of CCSH Interventions for Teams (CCSH-TI) to clinical research teams at the Winship Cancer Institute.

This is a randomized trial of CCSH Interventions for Teams versus a wait list control condition. CRC teams will be randomized to receive CCSH-TI during a first cohort or to a wait-list group that will receive CCSH-TI during the second cohort. CRCs (n = 93) will be randomized by team to receive CCSH Interventions for Teams either in the fall or in the spring. Participating CRCs will complete self-report measures at 4 timepoints throughout the year: (1) Prior to randomization, (2) immediately upon completion of CCSH Interventions for Teams for cohort 1 (3) prior to CCSH Interventions for Teams for cohort 2, and (4) immediately upon completion of CCSH Interventions for Teams for cohort 2.

Conditions

Health Behavior

Study Design

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

Study Groups

CCSH Interventions for Teams in Cohort 1

Participants in the first cohort will receive the CCSH Interventions for Teams during the fall session (first intervention period).

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

CCSH Intervention for Teams

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

CCSH Interventions for Teams will be a six session intervention. The groups meet once per week for 60 minutes for 4 weeks, coupled with 2 booster sessions over the following 2 months. Participants will receive the CCSH interventional approach, adapted for a group setting, which follows four stages: 1) Preparing the care responder; 2) Attuning to the Relationship; 3) Accessing Compassion, and 4) Entrusting the Careseeker.

The CCSH approach will be used to assess group dynamics, individual member sources of distress, as well as existing resources for resilience and compassion. Through the intervention, resources will then be identified and accessed in order to respond to team (and individual) sources of distress with greater resilience and increased compassion toward self and others. CCSH clinicians will utilize group process skills to encourage team communication about work-related challenges, enhance team cohesion, and enable interpersonal support among members of the team.

CCSH Interventions for Teams in Cohort 2

Participants in the second cohort will receive the CCSH Interventions for Teams during the spring session (second intervention period).

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

CCSH Intervention for Teams

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

CCSH Interventions for Teams will be a six session intervention. The groups meet once per week for 60 minutes for 4 weeks, coupled with 2 booster sessions over the following 2 months. Participants will receive the CCSH interventional approach, adapted for a group setting, which follows four stages: 1) Preparing the care responder; 2) Attuning to the Relationship; 3) Accessing Compassion, and 4) Entrusting the Careseeker.

The CCSH approach will be used to assess group dynamics, individual member sources of distress, as well as existing resources for resilience and compassion. Through the intervention, resources will then be identified and accessed in order to respond to team (and individual) sources of distress with greater resilience and increased compassion toward self and others. CCSH clinicians will utilize group process skills to encourage team communication about work-related challenges, enhance team cohesion, and enable interpersonal support among members of the team.

Interventions

CCSH Intervention for Teams

CCSH Interventions for Teams will be a six session intervention. The groups meet once per week for 60 minutes for 4 weeks, coupled with 2 booster sessions over the following 2 months. Participants will receive the CCSH interventional approach, adapted for a group setting, which follows four stages: 1) Preparing the care responder; 2) Attuning to the Relationship; 3) Accessing Compassion, and 4) Entrusting the Careseeker.

The CCSH approach will be used to assess group dynamics, individual member sources of distress, as well as existing resources for resilience and compassion. Through the intervention, resources will then be identified and accessed in order to respond to team (and individual) sources of distress with greater resilience and increased compassion toward self and others. CCSH clinicians will utilize group process skills to encourage team communication about work-related challenges, enhance team cohesion, and enable interpersonal support among members of the team.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Emory staff, clinical research coordinators

Exclusion Criteria

• None

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Emory University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Jennifer Mascaro

Assistant Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Jennifer Mascaro, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Emory University

Locations

Emory University, Winship Cancer Institute

Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Countries

United States

References

Mascaro JS, Palmer PK, Ash MJ, Peacock C, Sharma A, Escoffery C, Raison C. Feasibility, Acceptability, and Preliminary Effectiveness of a Compassion-Centered Team Intervention to Improve Clinical Research Coordinator Resilience and Well-Being. JCO Oncol Pract. 2021 Jul;17(7):e936-e946. doi: 10.1200/OP.21.00120. Epub 2021 Jun 21.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 34152835 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

IRB00112957

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id