NCT05956470

A Comprehensive Wellness Program (SKY) to Mitigate Physician Burnout

A Comprehensive Meditation and Breath Program (SKY) as an Adjunct Tool to Increase Resilience and Wellness in Frontline Healthcare Workers - A Randomized Pilot Study

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 128 (actual)
• Sponsor: Oslo University Hospital · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 25 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The primary objective of the study was to determine whether the yoga-based breathing and meditation program SKY could improve wellness indicators in currently practicing physicians. The hypothesis of this study is that SKY is effective in reducing anxiety and depression, increasing subjective optimism, and reducing physician burnout in healthy, actively practicing physicians.

Detailed description

Physicians are exposed to high stress and strain that results in burnout, affecting not only them, their families, patients, but the whole healthcare system. Thus there is an urgent need to develop methods to increase resiliency of physicians. A comprehensive yoga breathing and meditation-based online program (Sudarshan Kriya Yoga, or SKY) is a potential approach to mitigate physician burnout. This is a randomized clinical trial assessing the potential efficacy of SKY compared to a stress management education (SME) training as control, conducted online. Both groups received training for three consecutive days, 1,5 hours per day, through group video conference. Active physicians participated in the study from November 2021 to March 2022. Of the 280 physicians who showed interest and prescreened, 238 were eligible and randomized to receive either the SKY or the control intervention.

Conditions

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Stress
• Insomnia
• Optimism
• Interpersonal Disengagement
• Professional Fulfillment
• Work Exhaustion
• Self-reported Medical Errors
• Physician Burnout

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Meditation and breathing program : Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY)	The SKY sessions (3x1,5 h on consecutive days) included online instruction in gentle stretches ('office yoga' in a sitting position), specific breathing exercises and meditation, and discussion of cognitive/behavioral coping skills. After the 3-day program, participants asked to practice the techniques once a day for about 30 min. In addition, there were weekly group exercise sessions of 1 hour where all participants were asked to join.
BEHAVIORAL	Stress management education	This control intervention included viewing of educational videos on stress management and group discussions, where the sessions were equal in length to the SKY intervention. There were also weekly follow-up sessions as in the SKY group where the educational points were reviewed and experiences of the subjects during the previous week was discussed.

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-11-11
• Primary completion: 2022-01-17
• Completion: 2022-03-20
• First posted: 2023-07-21
• Last updated: 2023-07-21

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Turkey (Türkiye)