Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Metro Nashville Public School Employees

NCT05051969 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 211257
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 37
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

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.

Conditions

Self-compassion; Burnout; Stress; Anxiety; Depression

Keywords

Burnout; Self-compassion

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Feasibility - Recruitment

  Feasibility of recruitment will be assessed as the number of inviduals who are screened, eligible and enrolled in the study.

  Baseline

• Feasibility- class attendance

  Percentage of participants that attend each scheduled session and who complete the program.

  Baseline to program completion (8 weeks)

• Feasibility- enrollment retention

  Retention will be the number and proportion of indviduals who complete patient reported outcome data collection at 12-weeks.

  Baseline to 12 weeks after enrollment

• Acceptability - Overall Helpfulness of the course

  Helpfulness of the course assessed by a one question survey with an 11-point Numeric Rating Scale ranging from 0 ("Not helpful") to 10 ("Most helpful"). Lower scores indicate less helpfulness.

  Baseline to 8 weeks

Secondary Outcomes (9)

• Perceived stress as measured by a Perceived Stress Scale

  Baseline, 8 weeks and 12 weeks

• Anxiety as measured by the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Anxiety short form

  Baseline, 8 weeks and 12 weeks

• Depression as measured by the PROMIS Depression short form

  Baseline, 8 and 12 weeks after enrollment.

• Mindfulness as measured by the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire

  Baseline, 8 and 12 weeks after enrollment.

• Physical health as measured by the 6-item Short Form Health Survey within the (SF-12)

  Baseline, 8 and 12 weeks after enrollment.

Study Arms (2)

8 Week Remote Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program

EXPERIMENTAL

8 Week Remote MBSR Course for MNPS Employees.

Behavioral: Remote Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program

8 week waitlist control

NO INTERVENTION

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

Interventions

Remote Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program BEHAVIORAL

Enrolled participants will participate in a remote-delivered (online with audio and video) Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. MBSR is a well established behavioral health intervention consisting of 10-sessions lasting 2.5 hours, with one session lasting 7.5 hours in an all-day retreat format over a 2-month period.

8 Week Remote Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

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

You may not qualify if:

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

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Vanderbilt University Medical Center: lead

Study Sites (1)

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Nashville, Tennessee, 37203, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Burnout, Psychological; Anxiety Disorders; Depression

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Stress, Psychological; Behavioral Symptoms; Behavior; Mental Disorders

Study Officials

• Martha E Shepherd, DO, MPH

  Vanderbilt University Medical Center

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine and Pediatrics

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: September 12, 2021
• First Posted: September 21, 2021
• Study Start: July 1, 2022
• Primary Completion: January 5, 2023
• Study Completion: January 5, 2023
• Last Updated: February 8, 2023

Record last verified: 2023-02

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)