Effect of a Daily Meditation Intervention in Student Pharmacists

Midwestern University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Meditation; Resilience, Psychological; Well-being; Mindfulness; Stress, Psychological

Treatments: Behavioral: Guided meditation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05154565

21029

Details and patient eligibility

About

Pharmacy school is a 3-to-4 year intensive program that demands a high level of performance from enrolled students. The fast-paced and challenging curriculum causes stress levels to rise in students. The increase in stress can negatively affect performance in the classroom, as well as affect relationships outside the classroom setting. While some level of stress may be beneficial, the substantial amount of stress experienced by pharmacy students may also negatively impact their quality of life. This proposed study aims to explore the effect a convenient intervention on perceived stress, mindfulness, well-being, and resilience as reported by student pharmacists. Headspace will be used as the main study intervention. This product is a mobile device application (aka, an app) that teaches users how to meditate through guided exercises. It contains a library of different meditation exercises the user can access from their smartphone or tablet at their own convenience. It is our hope that the use of Headspace will enhance the students' ability to practice mindfulness, which will allow them to better cope with stress in school and in future practice. This could translate into improved learning and overall well-being.

Full description

This research study aims to implement a mindfulness meditation routine delivered via the smartphone application Headspace to decrease perceived stress and improve well-being, resilience, and mindfulness in student pharmacists. This product is a mobile device application (aka, an app) that teaches users how to meditate through guided exercises. It contains a library of different meditation exercises the user can access from their smartphone or tablet at their own convenience. The use of a smartphone application will allow for convenience to promote adherence with the intervention among participants. The guided meditation sessions will teach participants how to live in the present moment and handle stressful situations that may arise in the future. As a result of this program the investigators expect to see an inverse relationship between mindfulness meditation and perceived stress and direct relationships between mindfulness meditation and well-being and resilience. By learning to incorporate mindfulness meditation into their lives, participating student pharmacists may be able to develop useful tools and effectively combat overwhelming situations they may face in the future.

This study will be conducted in two phases. Participating student pharmacists will be randomly assigned to one of two groups. In Phase 1, Group A will complete four (4) weeks of guided meditation while Group B does not use the application for meditation. Changes in study outcomes will be compared from baseline to the end of the initial intervention period. In Phase 2, Group B will be complete the guided meditation intervention. Group A will continue their usual daily habits. It is possible for some students from Group A may continue to use Headspace or another similar product to continue to incorporate meditation or mindfulness into their daily routine. At the end of Phase 2, the changes in study outcomes will be examined in Group B surrounding their use of the intervention. Outcomes will also be assessed in Group A at the end of Phase 2 to examine whether there are sustained changes in study outcomes and continued usage of meditation or mindfulness practices. All participating student pharmacists will also be invited to participate in one of several focus groups sessions to discuss experiences with the use of the guided meditation application.

Enrollment: 46 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Student pharmacists enrolled in the didactic curriculum in the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program during the Winter 2021/2022 quarter at the sponsoring institution

Exclusion criteria

• None

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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46 participants in 2 patient groups

Immediate intervention (Group A)

Experimental group

Description:

Meditation intervention applied during Phase 1 of the study. During Phase 2, the formal meditation intervention is not completed, but participants are followed for outcome measurement. Participants may continue to use meditation in their daily routines or return to their usual routines.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Guided meditation

Delayed intervention (Group B)

Other group

Description:

No intervention is applied in Phase 1 of the study. This group serves as the control group for Phase 1. The meditation intervention is applied in Phase 2 of the study.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Guided meditation