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

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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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.

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

Conditions
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Burnout, Professional, Depression, Anxiety, Stress

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Cleveland Clinic Stress Free Now Meditations For Healers


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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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

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 75 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Interventional Model Description: Randomized, non-blinded, control trial
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| No Intervention: Control<br> | |
| Active Comparator: Intervention<br> | Behavioral: Cleveland Clinic Stress Free Now Meditations For Healers<br>* Phone-based meditation application<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Change in depression score | Beck Depression Inventory, numeric score of 0-63 with a score of 63 being the most depressed | 90 and 180 days | 
| Change in anxiety score | Beck Anxiety Inventory, numeric score of 0-63 with a score of 63 being the most anxious | 90 and 180 days | 
| Change in stress levels | Perceived Stress Scale, numeric score of 0-40 with a score of 40 being the most stressed | 90 and 180 days | 
| Change in burnout level | Maslach Burnout Inventory, measures level of stress on a numeric scale | 90 and 180 days, numeric scale between 0 and 6 with 6 being the highest score |