The Counselor Led Resident Wellness Study

April 28, 2026 updated by: Sean Kandel, University of Nevada, Reno
Residency is a challenging time in a physician's career. The investigators hope this study will provide a new wellness support model for residency programs to use for resident physicians. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of a wellness support model for residency programs that is lead by licensed counselors. The investigators expect that participating resident physicians will feel and perform better in their job and your life with this additional support.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Residency training has been identified as a challenging time in a physician's career. Prior studies have identified the positive effects of wellness support services on resident and attending physician wellbeing and burnout. A recent systematic review in PLoS One identified only one study in which counselors or psychologists, as opposed to peer mentors or other professionals including coaches, were utilized for the mental health wellness intervention. These studies show a benefit for some but not all metrics studied. Professional therapists may have additional skills or insight that may enhance wellness interventions. To help improve physician wellness at the University Health (UNR Plumas) Clinic, the investigators have developed an evidence based counselor wellness support group. The study will be a parallel group randomized controlled trial that seeks to build upon the above literature but also introduce additional novel components. Specifically, the study will utilize trained mental health counselors, instead of online or in person coaches or trained peer support, to provide in person physician wellness services to resident physicians. It will track the efficacy of a longitudinal, evidence-based curriculum by collecting data on wellness, depression, and anxiety using standard metrics, with the goal of increasing physician wellness in a cost-effective manner.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

21

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
    • Nevada
      • Reno, Nevada, United States, 89519
        • University Health Internal Medicine Clinic

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

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

-All internal medicine residents at the University of Nevada, Reno whose continuity clinic site is the University Health (UNR Plumas) Clinic for the 2025-2026 academic year will be offered the opportunity to participate.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Must be a UNR internal medicine resident as described above
  • Residents must be interested/willing to participate

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Counselor Wellness Intervention
Evidenced based, counselor lead wellness intervention that will provide psychoeducational peer support/peer process groups. Topics may include: work/life balance, resilience building, stress management, self- care practices, imposter syndrome, psychological effects, compassion fatigue, peer support, and mindfulness practices. Other evidence based therapeutic concepts, such as Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), may also be introduced as appropriate. The intervention group will also receive standard access to all mental health and wellness interventions at the university.
Behavioral: Wellness Intervention
Licensed counselors will provide evidence based curricula on the following: work/life balance, resilience building, stress management, self- care practices, imposter syndrome, psychological effects, compassion fatigue, peer support, and mindfulness practices.
No Intervention: Control Group
Standard access to all mental health and wellness interventions at the university.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
The World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5)
Time Frame: Approximately 10 months
The WHO-5 is a self-report instrument measuring mental well-being. It consists of five statements relating to the past two weeks. Each statement is rated on a 6-point scale, with higher scores indicating better mental well-being. Specifically, a score of 0 indicates the participant taking the survey has "At no time" experienced the statement in question, while a score of 5 indicates the participant experiences the statement "All of the time." A gradient of numbers in between 0-5 represents increasing in frequency of the given experience. The instrument has been translated into over 30 languages.
Approximately 10 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ - 9)
Time Frame: ~10 months
Graded measurement of general depression severity. Participants answer 9 questions with scores from 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day) for each question to determine depression severity. Higher numbers indicate higher possible depression severity.
~10 months
GAD 7
Time Frame: ~10 months
Seven question general anxiety metric. Participants rate questions from 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day) to give a general measure of anxiety severity. Higher numbers indicate higher anxiety severity.
~10 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Nevada, Reno

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Sean Kandel, DO, University of Nevada, Reno

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)

July 11, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

May 1, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

June 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 30, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 30, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

July 8, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 5, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 28, 2026

Last Verified

September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 23347451

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.

Clinical Trials on Anxiety

Clinical Trials on Wellness Intervention

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Macedonia

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Subscribe