The Effect of Essential Oil Inhalation Patches on Perceived Burn-out & Stress on an Inpatient Medical-surgery Unit.

December 11, 2025 updated by: Rachel G. Blier, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

The purpose of this clinical study is to compare the use of an essential oil inhalation patch in medical surgical nurses on perceived burn-out and stress.

The main question is can essential oil inhalation patches decrease perceived burn-out and stress.

Participants will

  • Take part in the study over 30 days, alternating weeks, resulting in each participant using six patches over six shifts.
  • Complete anonymous Perceived Stress Survey (PSS) before the study begins and at the conclusion of the study.
  • Participants will also complete a (different) survey after two weeks.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Essential Oil inhalation patches are a nonpharmacological option that is worn by the nursing staff on an inpatient medical-surgical unit to determine the efficacy of patch on staff perceived stress & burn-out levels. Each participant will wear a new patch during six work shifts. Location is on chest or the ID badge area where it can be easily accessed to. The patch provides up to 8 hours of aromatic support. The patches use a unique patented technology that slows the release of the aromatic molecules while maintaining the purity and vitality of the essential oil. The FDA approved medical adhesive patches are roughly 1x1" in size, and are inhalation only- no contact of essential oils on skin. The patch is portable and discreet. No overwhelming aroma for others. The patch has directions for use on package with an expiration date. Used for a non-specific purpose for stress reduction environment for this study.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

20

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
    • New Hampshire
      • Lebanon, New Hampshire, United States, 03756
        • Dartmouth Hitchcock 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

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Full time employee (Nurse, LPN, or LNA) working on L3WD and L4WC
  • At least 18 years of age

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Pregnant/breastfeeding or planning to become pregnant

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: Other
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Essential Oil Ptach
The nursing staff will wear an essential oil patch for 2 weeks.
Other: Oil Inhalation Patch
Each participant will wear a patch for a work week (3 worked shifts) and then no patch is worn for a week. This alternates for a total of a month.
Other Names:
  • Quella; Elequil

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in baseline perceived stress as measured by the Perceived Stress Scale
Time Frame: 4 weeks
Scores are measured on 0-4 scale with 0 indicating never and higher scores are more frequent.
4 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Rachel G. Blier, MSN,RN, DHMC

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)

June 30, 2025

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 20, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

November 30, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 10, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 22, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

September 25, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

December 18, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 11, 2025

Last Verified

May 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • STUDY02001908

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

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

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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