Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Metro Nashville Public School Employees

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Status: Completed

Conditions: Burnout; Self-compassion; Depression; Anxiety; Stress

Treatments: Behavioral: Remote Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05051969

211257

Details and patient eligibility

About

Stress, anxiety, and depression are common symptoms among public school teachers. Public school teachers are among the top professions reporting stress, anxiety, and depression. The causes are multifactorial and include work-related demands, challenges with students, limited resources, and compassion fatigue. Because of this, teachers are at risk of burnout and leaving or changing their profession. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a considerable impact on teachers due to disruptions in usual education delivery and ability to support students. Recent reports show poorer mental health and decreases in physical activity in teachers since the onset of the pandemic. Effective and implementable strategies are urgently needed to address poor mental health and to foster positive health characteristics in this population.

Mindfulness programs decrease feelings of stress, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion. Additionally, mindfulness can improve self-compassion, which may be an important mediating factor in a teacher population. Prior work has shown an inverse relationship between self-compassion and burnout. Currently, there are few studies investigating whether building self-compassion can reduce burnout in public school teachers. The investigators will explore therelationship between participation in a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course and changes in burnout, self-compassion, and other whole person health measures in an educator population. The overall objective of this open pilot study is to examine the feasibility and acceptability of an 8-week remote, group-based MBSR program delivered over Zoom for Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) personnel reporting elevated stress, anxiety, and/or depressive symptoms. Our pilot study results will contribute to the evidence on MBSR in a public-school employee population and inform strategies to optimize implementation of our remote MBSR program within the Vanderbilt Health at MNPS system.

Enrollment: 37 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Working certificated Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) employees who self-report stress, anxiety, and/or depressive symptoms

Exclusion criteria

• Unable to commit to the weekly MBSR schedule
• Have taken the MBSR course previously
• Participants who do not have reliable home internet

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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37 participants in 2 patient groups

8 Week Remote Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program

Experimental group

Description:

8 Week Remote MBSR Course for MNPS Employees.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Remote Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program

8 week waitlist control

No Intervention group

Description:

8 week waitlist control. They will complete the same assessments at baseline, 8 and 12 weeks