The Counselor Led Resident Wellness Study

University of Nevada, Reno

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Depression Not Otherwise Specified; Wellness Program; Burnout, Healthcare Workers; Anxiety

Treatments: Behavioral: Wellness Intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07053111

23347451

Details and patient eligibility

About

Residency is a challenging time in a physician's career. The investigators hope this study will provide a new wellness support model for residency programs to use for resident physicians. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of a wellness support model for residency programs that is lead by licensed counselors. The investigators expect that participating resident physicians will feel and perform better in their job and your life with this additional support.

Full description

Residency training has been identified as a challenging time in a physician's career. Prior studies have identified the positive effects of wellness support services on resident and attending physician wellbeing and burnout. A recent systematic review in PLoS One identified only one study in which counselors or psychologists, as opposed to peer mentors or other professionals including coaches, were utilized for the mental health wellness intervention. These studies show a benefit for some but not all metrics studied. Professional therapists may have additional skills or insight that may enhance wellness interventions. To help improve physician wellness at the University Health (UNR Plumas) Clinic, the investigators have developed an evidence based counselor wellness support group. The study will be a parallel group randomized controlled trial that seeks to build upon the above literature but also introduce additional novel components. Specifically, the study will utilize trained mental health counselors, instead of online or in person coaches or trained peer support, to provide in person physician wellness services to resident physicians. It will track the efficacy of a longitudinal, evidence-based curriculum by collecting data on wellness, depression, and anxiety using standard metrics, with the goal of increasing physician wellness in a cost-effective manner.

Enrollment: 21 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

-All internal medicine residents at the University of Nevada, Reno whose continuity clinic site is the University Health (UNR Plumas) Clinic for the 2025-2026 academic year will be offered the opportunity to participate.

Exclusion criteria

• Must be a UNR internal medicine resident as described above
• Residents must be interested/willing to participate

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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21 participants in 2 patient groups

Counselor Wellness Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Evidenced based, counselor lead wellness intervention that will provide psychoeducational peer support/peer process groups. Topics may include: work/life balance, resilience building, stress management, self- care practices, imposter syndrome, psychological effects, compassion fatigue, peer support, and mindfulness practices. Other evidence based therapeutic concepts, such as Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), may also be introduced as appropriate. The intervention group will also receive standard access to all mental health and wellness interventions at the university.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Wellness Intervention

Control Group

No Intervention group

Description:

Standard access to all mental health and wellness interventions at the university.