The Effectiveness of Guided Imagery for a Nonprofit's Employees

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

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Stress; Focus of Study
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Guided Imagery

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.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 69
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Ohio
    • Cleveland, Ohio, United States, 44114
      • FrontLine Service

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

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

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: 10 minute break; Participants asked to take a 10 minute break as usual 3 times per week for 4 weeks
Experimental: Guided Imagery; Participants listen to one of 6 pre-recorded guided imagery tracks 3 times per week for 4 weeks	Behavioral: Guided Imagery; Guided imagery is a stress management technique that uses verbal suggestion and descriptive language to guide the listener into imagining sensations and visualizing images in the mind in order to bring about a desired physical response, such as reduction in anxiety, stress, or pain. The guided imagery tracks chosen for the study were chosen because their goal is relaxation and stress relief, and their length is under 15 minutes.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
State Anxiety as Measured by the State Anxiety Short Form	Participants in the experimental group will fill out the State Anxiety Short Form, a 6-item questionnaire before and after listening to guided imagery. Participants in the control group will fill out the same measure before and after taking a break. This will be done 3 times per week for a duration of 4 weeks.	4 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Compassion Fatigue, Compassion Satisfaction, and Burnout, as measured by the ProQol	Participants in both the control and experimental groups will complete the ProQol, a 30-item questionnaire, before and after the 4-week intervention period.	4 weeks
Perceived Stress as measured by the Perceived Stress Scale	Participants in the experimental and control groups will complete the Perceived Stress Scale, a self-report, 10-item questionnaire, before and after the 4-week intervention period.	4 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: FrontLine Service
• Collaborators: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Investigators: Study Director: Ashwini Sehgal, MD, Case Western Reserve University, MetroHealth Medical Center; Principal Investigator: Kimberly A Juhas, MA, FrontLine Service

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: July 1, 2014
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 1, 2014
• Study Completion (Actual): November 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 14, 2014
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 15, 2014
• First Posted (Estimate): July 16, 2014

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 23, 2017
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 18, 2017
• Last Verified: February 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: burnout; compassion fatigue; guided imagery; state anxiety
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Stress, Psychological; Occupational Stress; Mental Fatigue; Fatigue; Compassion Fatigue
• Other Study ID Numbers: MD002265; IRB-2014-743 (Other Identifier: Case Western Reserve University IRB)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO