Mitigating Burnout in Nursing and Associated Healthcare Staff

NCT ID: NCT07018609

Last Updated: 2025-06-12

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 300 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2026-04-01
• Study Completion Date: 2028-04-30

Brief Summary

Workplace stress for healthcare workers is at an all-time high and the COVID-19 Pandemic magnified and amplified the impact of stress and burnout on health care workers, especially for frontline staff such as nurses. There are multiple external and individual factors that affect clinician well-being, and organizational factors are an important aspect to address when attempting to mitigate nurse burnout and improve well-being. This project seeks to expand two interventions that were piloted in the last few years since the Covid-19 Pandemic, validated to show improvement in staff well-being and decreased feelings of burnout following the interventions, and are easily implemented to benefit nurses and other multidisciplinary health care workers and students in both the inpatient and outpatient settings.

Conditions

Burn Out; Nurses

Study Design

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

Study Groups

Zen Den

Zen Den

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Zen Den Experience

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The Zen Den is a dedicated safe space for healthcare staff to decompress and recharge during shifts, addressing the growing issue of workplace stress. It has soft warm lighting, sound machines and aroma therapy, relaxing furnishings centered around a faux fireplace to create a stress-free environment.

Music Therapy

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Music Therapy Experience

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The music therapy experience will consist of either Music Minutes which have music therapists available on specific units and circulating amongst staff across flexible shift times. Intervention choices will include relaxation songs, motivation songs, music, mindfulness, breathing to music, dance-a-minute, and brief song rewrites. Notes for Resilience will be scheduled group sessions that follow a more structured format and are 30 to 60 minutes in length. Involvement and coping will be emphasized through active forms of music participation, including drum circles, unit playlist creation, song writing, jam sessions, and song discussion.

Interventions

Zen Den Experience

The Zen Den is a dedicated safe space for healthcare staff to decompress and recharge during shifts, addressing the growing issue of workplace stress. It has soft warm lighting, sound machines and aroma therapy, relaxing furnishings centered around a faux fireplace to create a stress-free environment.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Music Therapy Experience

The music therapy experience will consist of either Music Minutes which have music therapists available on specific units and circulating amongst staff across flexible shift times. Intervention choices will include relaxation songs, motivation songs, music, mindfulness, breathing to music, dance-a-minute, and brief song rewrites. Notes for Resilience will be scheduled group sessions that follow a more structured format and are 30 to 60 minutes in length. Involvement and coping will be emphasized through active forms of music participation, including drum circles, unit playlist creation, song writing, jam sessions, and song discussion.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• English-speaking employees or students at Penn State Health and College of Medicine.

Exclusion Criteria

• Non-English speaking individuals

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

Sponsors

Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Eric Messner

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

ERIC R MESSNER, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Penn State University

Central Contacts

ERIC R MESSNER, PhD

Role: CONTACT

emessner@pennstatehealth.psu.edu

7175318348

Other Identifiers

Study00026654

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id