Decreasing Physician Burnout With Professional Coaching

April 25, 2024 updated by: Joshua N. Khalili, MD, University of California, Los Angeles

The goal of this randomized control trial is to learn if professional coaching can help reduce physician burnout among physicians at UCLA. The main aims of the study are:

  • To reduce burnout among physicians with professional coaching
  • Improve work satisfaction and engagement, sense of self-efficacy and social support with professional coaching
  • Determine the efficacy of one-on-one professional coaching and small group professional coaching combined with behavioral interventions/activities in reducing physician burnout and comparing these groups to one another and to a delayed-entry (control) group

Participants will be randomly assigned into one of three groups:

  • Intervention Group 1: One-on-one coaching (N=30). Six one-on-one coaching sessions via Zoom with one of two private professional coaches every other week for 3-4 months.
  • Intervention Group 2: Coach-facilitated group sessions and coach-guided activities/behavioral interventions (N=30). Six small-group coaching sessions via Zoom with one of two private professional coaches and three physician participants in each group, every other week for 3-4 months.
  • Delayed-Entry Group 3 (N=30): No intervention during duration of study period. Note: once participation in the pilot study has been completed for Groups 1 and 2, physicians participating in Group 3 will be offered to participate in six one-on-one sessions with a private professional coach over a 3-4 month period.

Participants will complete several surveys that assess for burnout, work engagement and satisfaction, sense of social support and isolation, and areas of worklife) before the start, upon completion of the intervention and again at 6 months upon completion of the sessions for the delayed-entry group.

Each group also received coach-guided activities/behavioral interventions during coaching sessions. These activities will be sent by coaches to participates throughout the 3 month period and include, but are not limited to: Wheel of Life, visioning exercise, one page miracle: core values, purpose, and goals, buckets and mental models.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

79

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
    • California
      • Los Angeles, California, United States, 90095
        • University of California, Los Angeles

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

16 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Actively practicing UCLA department of medicine physicians who were hired before July 2020

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Current or anticipated (in the next 6 months) participation in one-on-one or group coaching provided by a professional coach. Participation in peer-to-peer UCLA DOM coaching program (note: coaches in the peer-to-peer UCLA DOM coaching program are not to be excluded)

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: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Delayed-entry group (placebo then one-on-one professional coaching)

Delayed-Entry Group 3 (N=30). No intervention during the 90 day study period. Note: once participation in the pilot study has been completed for Groups 1 and 2, physicians participating in Group 3 will be offered to participate in six one-on-one sessions with a private professional coach over a 3 month period.

The professional coaching method includes (but will not be limited to) the following themes: optimizing meaning and engagement in work, building social support and community, improving work efficiency, addressing workload and boundary setting, enhancing communication, and building leadership skills, pursuing hobbies and creation/innovation, and promoting self-compassion and self-care (with a focus on physical and mental health).
Behavioral: One-on-one professional coaching
One-on-one professional coaching
Experimental: One-on-one professional coaching

One-on-one professional coaching (N=30). Six one-on-one coaching sessions via Zoom with one of two private professional coaches every other week for 3-4 months.

The professional coaching method includes (but will not be limited to) the following themes: optimizing meaning and engagement in work, building social support and community, improving work efficiency, addressing workload and boundary setting, enhancing communication, and building leadership skills, pursuing hobbies and creation/innovation, and promoting self-compassion and self-care (with a focus on physical and mental health).

Coach-guided activities/behavioral interventions are included with coaching sessions. These activities are reviewed with participants throughout the 3-4 month period and include, but are not limited to: Wheel of Life, visioning exercise, one page miracle: core values, purpose, and goals, buckets and mental models.
Behavioral: One-on-one professional coaching
One-on-one professional coaching
Experimental: Small-group professional coaching with coach-guided activities/behavioral internventions

Coach-facilitated small group professional coaching sessions and coach-guided activities/behavioral interventions (N=30). Six small-group coaching sessions via Zoom with one of two private professional coaches and three physician participants in each group, every other week for 3-4 months.

The professional coaching method is similar to those receiving 1:1 professional coaching. The primary difference in this intervention group is that coaching sessions will be group-based with 3 physician participants.
Behavioral: Small-group professional coaching
Small-group professional coaching

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Burnout
Time Frame: 90 days
Physician burnout (as measured by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment) evaluated with the Maslach Inventory Scale
90 days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Areas of Worklife
Time Frame: 90 days
Workload, control, reward, community, fairness and values as measured by the Areas of Worklife Survey
90 days
Self-efficacy
Time Frame: 90 days
Sense of self-efficacy as measured by New General Self-Efficacy Scale
90 days
Work Engagmement and Satisfaction
Time Frame: 90 days
Measured by the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale
90 days
Social Support
Time Frame: 90 days
Sense of social support and isolation as measured by the PROMIS Social Isolation Subscale and Social Provisions Scale
90 days

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of California, Los Angeles

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Joshua Khalili, MD, University of California, Los Angeles

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)

January 12, 2023

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 13, 2024

Study Completion (Estimated)

May 31, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 13, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 13, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

October 17, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 29, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 25, 2024

Last Verified

April 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 22-001542

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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