The Effect of Laughter Yoga on Individual and Organizational Outcomes in Nurse Managers

November 17, 2025 updated by: SERPİL SUBAŞI ÇAĞLAR, Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University

The Effect of Laughter Yoga on Individual and Organizational Outcomes in Nurse Managers: A Longitudinal Study

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if laughter yoga can improve both individual and organizational outcomes in nurse managers. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  • Does laughter yoga lower burnout and stress levels in nurse managers?
  • Does laughter yoga improve work-life quality and job performance?
  • Does laughter yoga help nurse managers make better decisions and solve problems more effectively?
  • Does laughter yoga lower compassion fatigue and support positive approaches to workplace conflict? Researchers will compare a laughter yoga group with a control group to see if there are meaningful differences.

Participants will:

  • Join structured laughter yoga sessions for a defined period (weekly sessions).
  • Complete surveys before and after the program about stress, burnout, work-life quality, decision-making, problem solving, job performance, compassion fatigue, and conflict approaches.
  • Continue their usual work while attending sessions.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Nurse managers play a vital role in healthcare systems by ensuring the quality of nursing services, supporting staff, coordinating care, and solving organizational problems. However, the combination of administrative responsibilities, staff shortages, and high expectations often leads to stress, burnout, compassion fatigue, and difficulties in maintaining work-life balance. These conditions not only affect the individual health and well-being of nurse managers but also reduce team motivation, patient care quality, and overall organizational performance.

Laughter yoga is a mind-body practice that combines intentional laughter with breathing exercises. It does not rely on humor or jokes; instead, participants engage in guided group exercises that promote spontaneous and prolonged laughter. Scientific evidence suggests that laughter yoga can lower stress hormones, increase endorphins, improve mood, and strengthen social bonds. Although laughter yoga has been studied in various populations, there is a lack of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) specifically focusing on nurse managers and their professional challenges.

This randomized controlled trial aims to fill this gap by evaluating the individual and organizational outcomes of laughter yoga among nurse managers working in university and state hospitals.

The expected contribution of this study is to provide new evidence on a cost-effective, non-pharmacological intervention that can be easily integrated into hospital settings. If laughter yoga proves effective, it can be adopted as a sustainable strategy to support nurse managers' mental health, enhance their leadership capacity, and indirectly improve patient care and organizational outcomes.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

80

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 Contact

Study Contact Backup

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:

  • Currently working as a nurse manager
  • Having at least six months of managerial experience
  • Continuing to serve as a nurse manager throughout the study period

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Having previously received laughter yoga training
  • Use of medications affecting general health components during the study (e.g., for depression, anxiety)
  • Being pregnant
  • Experiencing an acute stressful life event, such as the death of a close relative
  • Having undergone abdominal surgery within the past 6 months

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Experimental: Laughter Yoga
Structured group-based laughter yoga sessions, 2 times per week, 30-45 minutes each, for 8 weeks.
Behavioral: Laughter Yoga Program
This intervention consists of a structured Laughter Yoga Program designed for nurse managers. Each session includes breathing exercises, warm-up activities, guided and simulated laughter exercises (such as clapping, chanting, role-play laughter), and a short relaxation/meditation phase. Sessions are conducted in small groups by a certified facilitator. The program is delivered twice weekly for 8 weeks, with each session lasting approximately 30-45 minutes. The intervention is intended to reduce burnout, stress, and compassion fatigue, while improving decision-making, problem-solving, job performance, and work-life balance.
Other Names:
  • Laughter Therapy;
  • Laughter Exercises
No Intervention: Control
Participants continue their routine work duties without any additional intervention.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Perceived Stress (Perceived Stress Scale - PSS)
Time Frame: Baseline, 8 weeks, 3 months.

Developed by Cohen & Williamson, adapted to Turkish by Eskin in 2013. 14 items, single-factor measure of stress.

Scale Range: 0-56. Interpretation Higher scores = greater perceived stress (worse outcome).
Baseline, 8 weeks, 3 months.
Burnout Levels (Maslach Burnout Inventory - MBI)
Time Frame: Baseline, immediately post-intervention (8 weeks), and follow-up (3 months after intervention).

Developed by Maslach & Jackson in 1986, adapted to Turkish by Ergin in1992. 22 items, three subscales: Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal Accomplishment.

Scale Range: Emotional Exhaustion (0-54), Depersonalization (0-30), Personal Accomplishment (0-48).

Interpretation: Higher Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization scores = worse outcome; higher Personal Accomplishment scores = better outcome.
Baseline, immediately post-intervention (8 weeks), and follow-up (3 months after intervention).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Problem Solving Inventory
Time Frame: Baseline, 8 weeks, 3 months

Problem Solving Inventory, Developed by Heppner & Peterson in1982; adapted to Turkish by Şahin in 1993

Description: 31 items, six subscales: Problem-Solving Confidence, Approach-Avoidance, Personal Control, Planfulness, Impulsivity, Reflective Style.

Scale Range: 31-186. Interpretation: Higher scores = less effective problem solving (worse outcome); lower scores = better problem-solving skills.
Baseline, 8 weeks, 3 months
Work Performance
Time Frame: Baseline, 8 weeks, 3 months.

Work Performance Job Performance Scale - Goodman and Svyantek in 1999; Turkish adaptation was made in 2014 by Bağcı.

Description: 25 items, two subscales: Task Performance and Contextual Performance.

Scale Range: 25-125. Interpretation: Higher scores = better work performance.
Baseline, 8 weeks, 3 months.
Compassion Fatigue
Time Frame: Baseline, 8 weeks, 3 months
Developed by Dennis Portnoy and adapted Turkısh by Özdemir and Kutlu in 2022. The form consists of 40 items. The scale, which has no sub-dimensions, is evaluated based on the total number of items. The scale is a 3-point Likert-type scale: 1 = Very true, 2 = Partly true, and 3 = Rarely true. Those who answered "Very true" to 15 or more items in total are considered to have high levels of compassion fatigue.Cronbach alpha is 0,87
Baseline, 8 weeks, 3 months
Decision-Making Styles scale
Time Frame: Baseline, 8 weeks, 3 months.

Developed by Scott and Bruce in 1995; adapted to Turkish by Yılmaz Kuşaklı in 2023

24 items, five subscales: Rational, Intuitive, Dependent, Avoidant, Spontaneous.

Scale Range: 24-120. Interpretation: Higher scores in each subscale = more frequent use of that decision-making style
Baseline, 8 weeks, 3 months.

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University

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.

Helpful Links

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 (Estimated)

December 11, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

February 17, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

March 17, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 19, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 17, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

November 19, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

November 19, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 17, 2025

Last Verified

November 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Laughter Yoga

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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