Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Metro Nashville Public School Employees

NCT ID: NCT05051969

Last Updated: 2023-02-08

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 37 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2022-07-01
• Study Completion Date: 2023-01-05

Brief Summary

Stress, anxiety, and depression are common symptoms among public school teachers. Public school teachers are among the top professions reporting stress, anxiety, and depression. The causes are multifactorial and include work-related demands, challenges with students, limited resources, and compassion fatigue. Because of this, teachers are at risk of burnout and leaving or changing their profession. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a considerable impact on teachers due to disruptions in usual education delivery and ability to support students. Recent reports show poorer mental health and decreases in physical activity in teachers since the onset of the pandemic. Effective and implementable strategies are urgently needed to address poor mental health and to foster positive health characteristics in this population.

Mindfulness programs decrease feelings of stress, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion. Additionally, mindfulness can improve self-compassion, which may be an important mediating factor in a teacher population. Prior work has shown an inverse relationship between self-compassion and burnout. Currently, there are few studies investigating whether building self-compassion can reduce burnout in public school teachers. The investigators will explore therelationship between participation in a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course and changes in burnout, self-compassion, and other whole person health measures in an educator population. The overall objective of this open pilot study is to examine the feasibility and acceptability of an 8-week remote, group-based MBSR program delivered over Zoom for Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) personnel reporting elevated stress, anxiety, and/or depressive symptoms. Our pilot study results will contribute to the evidence on MBSR in a public-school employee population and inform strategies to optimize implementation of our remote MBSR program within the Vanderbilt Health at MNPS system.

Conditions

Self-compassion; Burnout; Stress; Anxiety; Depression

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NON_RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: OTHER
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

8 Week Remote Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program

8 Week Remote MBSR Course for MNPS Employees.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Remote Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Enrolled participants will participate in a remote-delivered (online with audio and video) Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. MBSR is a well established behavioral health intervention consisting of 10-sessions lasting 2.5 hours, with one session lasting 7.5 hours in an all-day retreat format over a 2-month period.

8 week waitlist control

8 week waitlist control. They will complete the same assessments at baseline, 8 and 12 weeks

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Remote Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program

Enrolled participants will participate in a remote-delivered (online with audio and video) Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. MBSR is a well established behavioral health intervention consisting of 10-sessions lasting 2.5 hours, with one session lasting 7.5 hours in an all-day retreat format over a 2-month period.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Working certificated Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) employees who self-report stress, anxiety, and/or depressive symptoms

Exclusion Criteria

• Unable to commit to the weekly MBSR schedule
• Have taken the MBSR course previously
• Participants who do not have reliable home internet

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

Sponsors

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Martha E. Shepherd

Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine and Pediatrics

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Martha E Shepherd, DO, MPH

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Locations

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Nashville, Tennessee, United States

Countries

United States

Provided Documents

Document Type: Informed Consent Form

View Document

Other Identifiers

211257

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id