Effect of an 8-week Heartfulness Meditation Program on Burnout and Stress at Veterinary Specialty Hospital

April 1, 2024 updated by: Heartfulness Institute

Investigating the Effect of an 8-week Heartfulness Meditation Program on Employee Burnout and Stress at Veterinary Specialty Hospital

This quantitative study assesses the effects of meditation and relaxation practices on the reduction of burnout and stress in veterinary care workers. Assessments at baseline will include the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Maslach Burnout Toolkit, and the same questionnaires were collected in Week 8 and Week 16. The Google form questionnaire will ask the participant for their email address. The form will also include a question eliciting interest in participation in the 8-weeks Heartfulness Meditation program. The program will include tools that promote a heart-based nurturing environment focusing on relaxation, and tools to cope with burnout.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of meditation and relaxation practices on the reduction of burnout and stress in veterinary care workers.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

74

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
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02130
        • Angell Animal 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:

  • Above the age of 18 years
  • An employee of MSPCA-Angell Hospital

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Experience suicidal ideation
  • Diagnosed with manic-depressive disorders
  • Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Diagnosed with psychotic disorders, or any other psychiatric conditions requiring treatment

All eligible members are encouraged to check with their healthcare provider before participation.

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: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control Group
The control group had no change in their daily routines.
Experimental: Heartfulness Group
Participants in the meditation program will be provided with guided meditation and relaxation audio clips to spend approximately 20 minutes per day on the meditation and relaxation activities and participate each week in a 20-30 minutes online meditation webinar with a certified meditation trainer. All meditation and relaxation exercises can be performed in the comfort of your own home or other place of your choosing. The intervention will be entirely online.
Behavioral: 8-week wellness and relaxation meditation program
Heartfulness Meditation program will be provided with guided meditation and relaxation audio clips to spend approximately 20 minutes per day on the meditation and relaxation activities and participate each week in a 20-30 minutes online meditation webinar with a certified meditation trainer. All meditation and relaxation exercises can be performed in the comfort of your own home or other place of your choosing. The intervention will be entirely online.
Other Names:
  • 8-week Heartfulness Meditation Program

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Assess the current level of Anxiety
Time Frame: Week 0
To assess the current level of stress levels through Perceived Stress Scale. Individual scores on the PSS can range from 0 to 40 with higher scores indicating higher perceived stress.
Week 0
Changes level of Stress
Time Frame: Week 8 and Week 16
To assess the beneficial impact of Heartfulness program on lowering the Stress. Individual scores on the PSS can range from 0 to 40 with higher scores indicating higher perceived stress.
Week 8 and Week 16
Assess the current level of Burnout
Time Frame: Week 0
To assess the current level of burnout levels through Maslach Burnout Toolkit Scale which included Maslach Burnout Inventory for healthcare professionals (MBI-HSS) and Areas of Worklife (AWS). The MBI-HSS comprised 22 questions across 3 subscales; Emotional Exhaustion (EE)-9 questions, Depersonalization (DP)-5 questions, and self-perceived lack of Personal Accomplishment (PA)-8 questions. Responses were scored on a six-point Likert scale (ranging from 0 = never to 6 = everyday) for each subscale, and tabulated into three tiers (low, moderate or high) based on the reference ranges provided with the MBI-HSS. The higher the score the worse the burnout levels. The AWS is a 28 item questionnaire subdivided into six areas with a response scale of 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree). Higher the score in a sub-area shows a better area in work life.
Week 0
Changes level of Burnout
Time Frame: Week 8 and Week 16
To assess the beneficial impact of Heartfulness program on improving burnout levels through Maslach Burnout Toolkit Scale which included Maslach Burnout Inventory for healthcare professionals (MBI-HSS) and Areas of Worklife (AWS). The MBI-HSS comprised 22 questions across 3 subscales; Emotional Exhaustion (EE)-9 questions, Depersonalization (DP)-5 questions, and self-perceived lack of Personal Accomplishment (PA)-8 questions. Responses were scored on a six-point Likert scale (ranging from 0 = never to 6 = everyday) for each subscale, and tabulated into three tiers (low, moderate or high) based on the reference ranges provided with the MBI-HSS. The higher the score the worse the burnout levels. The AWS is a 28 item questionnaire subdivided into six areas with a response scale of 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree). Higher the score in a sub-area shows a better area in work life.
Week 8 and Week 16

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Heartfulness Institute

Collaborators

Angell Animal Medical Center

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)

February 28, 2023

Primary Completion (Actual)

October 2, 2023

Study Completion (Actual)

October 2, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 23, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 23, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

March 29, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 2, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 1, 2024

Last Verified

April 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • HFNVSH.001

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

Publish a research paper with details on the study design, protocol, analysis of data, and report on implications to stress management and wellness tools.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Starting six months after publication

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Access criteria IPD and any additional supporting information will be shared with the researchers furthering research in stress management and emotional wellness tools.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP
  • ICF

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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