Mayo Clinic Family Medicine Resident Wellness Study

Mayo Clinic Family Medicine Resident Wellness Study: Feasibility of a Tailored Virtual Exercise Program and Its Impacts on Sleep Patterns and Subjective Mental Fatigue Among Family Medicine Residents: A Step Towards Prevention of Burnout in Early Career Physicians

The objectives of this study are to better understand the association between sleep characteristics (sleep disruptions and deprivations) during overnight shifts and mental fatigue among medical residents, and to explore the feasibility of a virtual, tailored exercise program on sleep characteristics, subjective mental fatigue, and burnout level among residents in family medicine.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Sleep Patterns
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Questionnaires; Other: Actigraph and activPAL devices

Detailed Description

The purpose of the proposed study is two-fold: 1) to better understand the association between sleep characteristics (sleep disruptions and deprivations) during overnight shifts and mental fatigue among medical residents; and 2) to explore the feasibility of a three-week tailored, virtual exercise program on sleep characteristics, subjective mental fatigue, and burnout level among residents in family medicine. It is hypothesized that: 1) the greater the number of average sleep disruptions, and the greater the sleep deprivation, the greater the acute mental fatigue during overnight shifts reported by the family medicine residents; 2) the number of average sleep disruptions and the magnitude of sleep deprivation are greater during overnight shifts than non-overnight shifts among family medicine residents; and 3) a three-week tailored virtual exercise program will significantly increase the amount of physical activity throughout the day and reduce the levels of mental fatigue and perceived burnout during overnight shifts.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 13
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Wisconsin
    • Eau Claire, Wisconsin, United States, 54703
      • Mayo Clinic Health System-Eau Claire

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• A Family Medicine Resident at the Mayo Clinic Health System of Eau Claire in either the PGY-1 Year, PGY-2 Year, or PGY-2 Year (5 residents from each year).

Exclusion Criteria:

• Participant is not able to wear the devices for the assigned timeframe.
• Any condition the investigator considers will prevent compliance with study instructions.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: A three-week tailored, virtual exercise intervention.

Other: Questionnaires; Once each participant signs an informed consent form upon agreeing to participate in the study, they will be asked to complete a simple demographic questionnaire including year in program, work schedule, self-reported height and weight, age, and sex. They will also be interviewed by a faculty of university of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC) regarding their current and past exercise habits, exercise preferences, and perceived exercise barriers. Two questionnaires listed above (Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery (OFER 15) and Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)) will also be completed by each participant on Qualtrics online platform.; Other: Actigraph and activPAL devices; Actigraph and activPAL devices will be set up based on the demographic information and will be provided to each participant to wear for 7 consecutive days during all waking hours and sleep, except when bathing or swimming. If the first 7-day monitoring period was an overnight inpatient week, the second 7-day monitoring period will be scheduled during a non-overnight week. A day before the first day of the second monitoring period, a new set of Actigraph and activPAL devices will be delivered to each participant. Once the second monitoring period ends, devices will be retrieved from each participant, and data will be downloaded from devices.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Work-related mental fatigue	Subjective work-related mental fatigue will be measured using the OFER 15 which has 15 items on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). The three subscales of OFER 15 include: chronic fatigue (items 1-5), acute fatigue (items 6-10), and inter-shift recovery (items 11-15) experienced in the past few months. Scores for each subscale range from 0-100. Higher scores indicate acute and chronic fatigue and greater inter-shift recovery.	up to 4 weeks
Work-related burnout	Levels of burnout will be assessed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) which has 22 items on a 7-point Likert scale of 0 (never) to 6 (every day), consisting of three subscales of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. Low personal accomplishment scores, high emotional exhaustion scores, and high depersonalization scores suggest increased levels of burnout.	up to 4 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Sleep duration	Number of hours of sleep per night measured using the activePAL inclinometer	up to 4 weeks
Sleep disruptions	Number of times shifting from lying to upright posture per night measured using the activePAL inclinometer	up to 4 weeks
Horizontal shifts during sleep per night	Number of horizontal shifts during sleep per night measured using the active PAL inclinometer	up to 4 weeks

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Exercise duration	Number of minutes per day of exercise measured by Actigraph wGT3Xbt accelerometer	up to 4 weeks
Exercise Frequency	Number of days per week of exercise measured by Actigraph wGT3Xbt accelerometer	up to 4 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Mayo Clinic
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Terri Nordin, MD, Mayo Clinic

Publications and helpful links

Helpful Links

• Mayo Clinic Clinical Trials

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 1, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 15, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): July 15, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 18, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 24, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): December 8, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): November 10, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 8, 2022
• Last Verified: November 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Acute and Chronic Cognitive Fatigue; Perceived burnout; Family Medicine Residency Program
• Other Study ID Numbers: 21-007624

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No