A Comprehensive Wellness Program (SKY) to Mitigate Physician Burnout

University of Oslo (UIO)

Status: Completed

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

Treatments: Behavioral: Stress management education; Behavioral: Meditation and breathing program : Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05956470

iBG-2021-015

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Full 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.

Enrollment: 128 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 25 to 65 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Actively working physicians without any chronic disease with documented interest in being part of a study to evaluate breath/meditation-derived exercises and a willingness to do some form of relaxation exercises every day for 8 weeks.

Exclusion criteria

• Presence of psychiatric illness or other major illnesses, such as bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, uncontrolled hypertension, lung disease, liver disease, cancer, or heart disease; maintaining a regular mind-body program practice such as meditation, yoga, and breathing techniques.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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128 participants in 2 patient groups

SKY intervention group

Experimental group

Description:

Meditation and breath program: includes gentle stretches (office yoga' in a sitting position) and three different types of specific breathing exercises. 3x1,5 hours. Daily practice thereafter for about 30 minutes for 8 weeks. In addition, there are weekly one-hour sessions for group practice and discussion.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Meditation and breathing program : Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY)

Control group

Active Comparator group

Description:

Group discussion-based viewing of online educational videos that demonstrate ways to mitigate psychological distress, including the use of cognitive coping techniques. 3x1,5 hours. It includes weekly online meetings with group discussions, experience sharing, and watching brief videos on the key elements of the program for 8 weeks.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Stress management education