Clinical trial NCT02191345: The Effectiveness of Guided Imagery for a Nonprofit's Employees
Official title: A Randomized Controlled Trial Measuring the Effectiveness of Prerecorded Guided Imagery in Reducing Compassion Fatigue, Burnout, Perceived Stress, and State Anxiety of a Mental Health Nonprofit's Employees
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Focus of Study
Stress
Keywords: guided imagery
burnout
compassion fatigue
state anxiety
Lead sponsor: FrontLine Service
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
First posted: 2014-07-16
Enrollment: 69
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: Primary Aim A. To determine if listening to prerecorded guided imagery 3 times per week for 4 weeks will reduce state anxiety, perceived stress, burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma in Fronltine Service staff.

Primary Aim B. To determine if staff will continue to listen to guided imagery after the first 4 weeks of the study is over.

Detailed description: The purpose of this study is to compare the change in stress levels of employees who listen to prerecorded guided imagery to employees who take breaks, and to determine if employees are likely to adopt prerecorded guided imagery as a self-care tool.

Participants will be randomly assigned to either the guided imagery group or the control group. Members of the control group will be asked to take a 10 minute break 3 times per week for 4 weeks. Members of the guided imagery group will be asked to listen to one prerecorded guided imagery track 3 times per week for 4 weeks. All participants will fill out questionnaires before and after the 4 week period. All participants will fill out a short form before and after listening to each guided imagery, or before and after taking each break.

Phase 2: After phase 1 is complete, all participants will have the option to participate in phase 2 of the study. During phase 2, participants will receive a calendar and put a mark on every day that they listen to a guided imagery track. At the end of 4 weeks, participants will turn in the calendar.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Staff of a nonprofit who work a minimum of three shifts per week
* Willing and able to use about 8-15 minutes of their lunch hours three times per week for for four weeks for the study

Exclusion Criteria:

* Staff members will be excluded from the study if they currently listen to guided imagery
* Those currently experiencing drug or alcohol abuse, suicidal ideation, or other serious mental health issue while not under the care of a trained mental health professional will also be excluded

Primary outcomes:
measure: State Anxiety as Measured by the State Anxiety Short Form
timeFrame: 4 weeks
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Compassion Fatigue, Compassion Satisfaction, and Burnout, as measured by the ProQol
timeFrame: 4 weeks
measure: Perceived Stress as measured by the Perceived Stress Scale
timeFrame: 4 weeks
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Cleveland
country: United States
facility: FrontLine Service
state: Ohio
Study officials:
affiliation: Case Western Reserve University, MetroHealth Medical Center
name: Ashwini Sehgal, MD
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
affiliation: FrontLine Service
name: Kimberly A Juhas, MA
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: