Use of Death Cafes to Prevent Burnout in ICU Healthcare Employees (STOPTHEBURN)

February 3, 2023 updated by: Tulane University School of Medicine

Systematic Trial Of PrevenTing Healthcare Employee Burnout: Using Reflection & Nourishment

Burnout affects a significant number of healthcare employees and leads to worsened mental health, increased job turnover, and patient safety events. Those caring for critically ill patients may be especially susceptible due to high patient mortality, long hours, and regular encounters with traumatic and ethical issues. Preliminary studies suggest that debriefing opportunities may reduce burnout through reflection on distressing patient events, enhancement of social support, and interprofessional collaboration. Death Cafés are a specific form of debriefing that focus on discussing death, dying, loss, and illness.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether biweekly Death Cafe group debriefing sessions can prevent burnout in ICU physicians and staff.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

340

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Louisiana
      • New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, 70112
        • Tulane Medical Center
      • New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, 70118
        • Children's Hospital New Orleans
      • New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, 70121
        • Ochsner Medical Center
      • New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, 70112
        • University Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • ADULT
  • OLDER_ADULT
  • CHILD

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Physicians, nurses, pharmacists, or therapists working in the Intensive Care Unit and have worked for the full-time equivalent of at least 1 week in the preceding 4 weeks

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Not physicians, nurses, pharmacists, or therapists
  • Have worked less than the full-time equivalent of at least 1 week in the preceding 4 weeks

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: PREVENTION
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: NONE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Death Cafe Arm
Participants undergo biweekly Death Café sessions hosted by a trained psychotherapist for 3 months.
Behavioral: Death Cafe
Death Cafés are a specific form of debriefing that focuses on discussing death, dying, loss, and illness. Nourishment in the form of cake is provided. These sessions may allow for reflection on distressing patient events while developing a sense of community and collaboration among hospital employees.
NO_INTERVENTION: Control Arm
Participants do not undergo biweekly Death Café sessions hosted by a trained psychotherapist for 3 months.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Differences in Burnout as measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory Score (MBI).
Time Frame: At the time of enrollment and at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months after enrollment
This is a validated 22-item, self-reported questionnaire that asks respondents to indicate on a 7 point Likert scale the frequency of certain feelings related to their job. Presence of burnout is defined by high values of depersonalization and emotional exhaustion with low values for personal accomplishment. Changes in mean scores between groups and within groups over time will be assessed.
At the time of enrollment and at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months after enrollment

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Differences in Depression as measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire 8 (PHQ-8)
Time Frame: At the time of enrollment and at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months after enrollment
This is an 8 question validated questionnaire that asks respondents to indicate the frequency with which they have experienced certain symptoms consistent with depression. Higher scores mean higher frequency of depression symptoms, and a score of 10 or higher will be considered to indicate clinically significant depression. Changes in mean scores between groups and within groups over time will be assessed.
At the time of enrollment and at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months after enrollment
Differences in Anxiety as measured by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 Scale (GAD-7)
Time Frame: At the time of enrollment and at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months after enrollment
This is a 7 question validated questionnaire that asks respondents to indicate the frequency with which they have experienced certain symptoms consistent with anxiety. Higher scores mean higher frequency of anxiety symptoms, and a score of 10 or higher will be considered to indicate clinically significant anxiety. Changes in mean scores between groups and within groups over time will be assessed.
At the time of enrollment and at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months after enrollment

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Tulane University School of Medicine

Collaborators

Spirit of Charity Foundation - University Medical Center

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (ACTUAL)

July 20, 2020

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

December 26, 2022

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

December 26, 2022

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 12, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 13, 2020

First Posted (ACTUAL)

April 15, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

February 6, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 3, 2023

Last Verified

February 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2019-908

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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