Effect of Four-Week Wellness Program on Work Engagement Burnout and Sleep in a Healthcare Organization (WEBS) (WEBS)

Effect of Four-Week Wellness Program on Sleep and Work Engagement in a Healthcare Organization

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if having a 4-week heartfulness meditation program in a healthcare organization would

1. decrease burnout
2. improve sleep and work engagement.

Researchers will compare : intervention group : participating in 4 weeks of Heartfulness Meditation with control group: receiving no intervention

Responses to the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), Bergen Insomnia Scale (BIS) and two burnout questions will be compared between the study groups at the beginning and end of the intervention period.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Burnout; Sleep; Work Engagement
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Heartfulness Meditation

Detailed Description

The study is an 8-week single-center prospective, randomized, crossover study among healthcare workers in the WellSpan Health System. All participants were asked to answer two demographic questions and responses to the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), and Bergen Insomnia Scale (BIS), two burnout questions were requested for a baseline. Participants were randomized to two groups. One of the groups would undergo the intervention first, which comprised receiving an orientation session regarding the study, attending at least once weekly didactic sessions on Zoom, and participating in morning and evening meditation for ten to fifteen minutes daily. The duration of the intervention period was four weeks. During this time, the control group would not be undergoing any intervention. After four weeks, both groups completed the original questionnaire again followed by a 2 week washout period. This was followed by a crossover, allowing the second group to undergo the intervention for four weeks. After four weeks, the final survey was sent to all participants again.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 117
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • York, Pennsylvania, United States, 17403
      • WellSpan Health

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age above 18 and willing to participate
• Able to understand the English language as the instructions were in English

Exclusion Criteria:

• Not able to understand English language

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention Arm; Comprised of receiving an orientation session regarding the study, attending at least once weekly didactic sessions on Zoom and participating in morning and evening meditation for ten to fifteen minutes daily. A weekly, live online session for 4 weeks consists of 30 minutes of didactics, comprising of a 10 minute introductory talk on a module of meditation, followed by 20 minutes of guided meditation. Participants provided with materials such as guided audio clips to independently follow heartfulness practices (meditation, rejuvenation, and bed-time relaxation) for 20 minutes each day for 4 weeks: 10 minutes Heartfulness meditation in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening before sleeping Email reminders were sent weekly containing audio recordings for guided meditation sessions. All study activities were virtual.	Other: Heartfulness Meditation; Receiving an orientation session regarding the study, attending once weekly didactic sessions on Zoom for Heartfulness Meditation, and participating in morning and evening meditation for ten to fifteen minutes daily either by themselves or along with the trainer.
No Intervention: Control arm; The control group would not be undergoing any intervention.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Sleep	The Bergen Insomnia Scale (BIS) was measured prior to enrollment, at the four-week time point after the first half of the study, and at the end of the study period at 8 weeks for both the groups. The BIS contains six questions relating to sleep and tiredness, and it is scaled based on the number of days per week that participants are experiencing symptoms. 0 means no days during the course of a week, and 7 indicates every day of the week.	From intervention to end of intervention at 4 weeks for each group

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Work engagement	THE UWES scale, designed to study work engagement using three scales: vigor, dedication, and absorption was measured prior to the beginning of the study, at the four-week time point after the first half of the study, and at the end of the study period at 8 weeks for both groups. The UWES questionnaire contains 9 questions, and participants are given a scale from 0 to 6, with 0 being never to 6 being always 10.	From intervention to end of intervention at 4 weeks for each group
Burnout	Two burnout questions were asked, 1. I feel burned out from my work 2. I have become more callous toward people since I took this job . The scale for answering these questions ranged from never to everyday. This was measured prior to the beginning of the study, at the four-week time point after the first half of the study, and at the end of the study period at 8 weeks for both groups.	From intervention to end of intervention at 4 weeks for each group

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: WellSpan Health

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 8, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 8, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): August 31, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 11, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 11, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): March 25, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 25, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 11, 2025
• Last Verified: January 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: sleep; meditation; burnout; heartfulness; work enagement
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Stress, Psychological; Burnout, Psychological
• Other Study ID Numbers: [2126338-4]

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