Impact of Kindness Videos in Health Care Settings

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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This study builds on earlier work assessing the impact of kindness media on viewers' emotional responses. Using images of kindness and connection, as well as other content, we will test its impact on emotions and behavior in the field. The setting is in healthcare, specifically a pediatric dental clinic. Using simple scales, participants anonymously rate themselves on a variety of emotions, watch a television for 8 minutes, and then complete the self-assessment. An honorarium is provided for participation.

Detailed Description
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The present study builds on the earlier work with a focused application of inspiring content in health care settings. It is well described that health care providers, including doctors, nurses, and other staff members) have high rates of burnout, depression, and suicide-approximately twice that of the general population. In addition to the lower quality of life for the individual health care provider, this burnout problem has consequences for the patient, including heightened number of medical errors. Patients, of course, also have significant stressors in their lives. Perhaps, those center on health-related issues, or are more general in nature. In the general population, it is known that anxiety, perceived stress, opiate abuse, and suicide are all rising. From the patients' perspective, it is important to encourage them to adapt behaviors and attitudes that will benefit themselves as well as others. It has been shown that being kind and compassionate can yield positive impacts on health: people who volunteer regularly, for example, have death rates 20-40% lower than those who do not. Another facet of inducing kindness and compassion is kindness towards oneself. In health care settings, behavioral modification is very challenging. One way to rethink that approach is teaching and illustrating to patients how kindness to oneself is a necessity. Kindness to oneself encompasses following physician instructions as well as general health practice. By providing inspiring visual content to both patients and providers, it is believed that at least additive if not synergistic interaction will occur with simultaneous promotion of kindness, compassion, joy and love for both groups. To date, multiple publications have pointed to the observation that various types of media can inspire viewers such that they are moved or touched or elevated. Most of these studies have focused on the use of single films from several minutes long to full length feature films. Much of the above cited research has been done in a laboratory or structured research setting. While very valuable, this research plan focuses on a real world setting, i.e., with patients and practitioners at the source in their work environments. The first step is to measure responses from both providers and patients. C. Objectives Quantify the response to videos depicting kindness, compassion, connection, joy, and love for both patients (or caregivers) and for health care staff. Compare these responses to the standard content that the site uses. Determine the impact of these videos on a measure of generosity. Obtain qualitative feedback on the content in the effort to improve the content. D. Hypothesis Kindness media both moves and provides a significant lift in emotional state for both sets of viewers (providers and patients). Compared to what is usually shown, kindness media has significant impact on emotional state. Viewers will prefer to see more kindness media upon future visits. Design: Open, randomized, comparator-controlled study of kindness media versus commercial media on emotions and behavior. Parents and staff of the clinic are recruited as participants. Surveys with self-ratings are completed before and then after watching either kindness media or commercial (standard) children's media for 8 minutes.

Official Title
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An Exploratory Study of the Impact of Kindness Videos in Health Care Settings

Conditions
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Altruism, Behavior, Emotions

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Kindness Media


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: - Ability to give consent and complete forms Exclusion Criteria: none

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 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: Treatment
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Kindness media<br>Short videos of kindness media. As part of a program entitled EnSpire®, this media consists of short videos that display acts of kindness and compassion that are edited together into a single reel. | Other: Kindness Media<br>* As described above, the intervention is a series of short videos that display acts of kindness or ideas about kindness. These videos are edited together into one reel that was 8 minutes long.<br>* Other names: EnSpire®;|
| Active Comparator: Standard television<br>Children's commercial programming--as the control condition, participants watched commercial children's programming such as Disney, Nickelodeon, etc. | Other: Kindness Media<br>* As described above, the intervention is a series of short videos that display acts of kindness or ideas about kindness. These videos are edited together into one reel that was 8 minutes long.<br>* Other names: EnSpire®;|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Emotional responses | Set of questions regarding self-assessed emotional states including happiness, feeling calm, grateful, compassionate, optimistic, sad, irritated, or anxious. Scored 1-5 with 1 = not at all and 5= a lot. | immediately after intervention | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Number of participants who donated | Measurement of donation--participants are asked whether or not they would be willing to donate to a family in need. The number of donations in each intervention group is counted. | Immediately after intervention | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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kindness, behavior, altruism, emotions, generosity