The Impact of Musical Engagement on Medical Resident Well-being

NCT05949216 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: MRM_Study
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 8
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

It is common knowledge that music has a positive impact on human well-being. It is also well-known that medical residents are frequently stressed and burnt out. With these two thoughts in mind, the investigators want to explore how participating in a musical engagement program may positively impact medical resident well-being. The investigators hope to do this by hosting four informal musical engagement sessions with medical residents, which will involve playing instruments, improvising, and reading sheet music. To study the impact that this program has on participants, investigators will ask participants to complete a survey. The investigators hope to find that participants are positively impacted by participation in the study, in terms of factors like stress reduction and minimized burnout symptoms. Hopefully, the study results may inform residency program curriculum designers in the future may incorporate music into wellness programming.

Conditions

Burnout; Student Burnout; Physical Disability; Resident Doctor; Music Therapy; Music; Stress; Wellness, Psychological

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Improvement of burnout symptoms

  Participants will respond to three questionnaires - before, during, and after the study has completed. Questions will pertain to burnout symptoms and each will use a 5-point Likert scale. Options will be "strongly disagree", "disagree", "neutral", "agree", and "strongly disagree". Examples of questions include "I feel burnt out" and "I have difficulty concentrating at work". Questions will be identical between each questionnaire. By comparing answers between surveys we will be able to determine how burnout symptoms may have changed during the course of the study.

  Eight weeks

Study Arms (1)

Musical engagement sessions

EXPERIMENTAL

The single group of this study will participate in four musical engagement sessions as described in the intervention section.

Behavioral: Musical engagement sessions

Interventions

Musical engagement sessions BEHAVIORAL

Musical engagement sessions will be 2 hours long and involve improvisation and sight-reading of sheet music. Participants will supply their own instrument of choice to play. There will be four sessions total.

Musical engagement sessions

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Participants will be residents in the Family Medicine program at McMaster University, in any year of study
• Participants may be on any rotation in their program schedule and located at any site
• Participants may be of any gender identity, age, ethnicity, and sexual orientation
• Must identify as a "musician", whether casual, professional, or somewhere in between - however, they require enough musical training so that they may comfortably participate in the planned sight reading and improvisation within the study
• Participants must be able to supply their own physical instrument for sessions
• Must be aged 18 or over
• Must be English-speaking

You may not qualify if:

• Potential participant may not be a resident of any other residency program, or be from a university other than McMaster
• If a participant is unable to participate in two or more musical sessions, they will not be included in this study
• If a participant is unable to complete the qualitative and quantitative survey forms in their entirety, they will not be included in this study

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Conor Donnelly: lead

Study Sites (1)

McMaster University

Hamilton, Ontario, L8S4L8, Canada

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Burnout, Psychological; Psychological Well-Being

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Stress, Psychological; Behavioral Symptoms; Behavior; Personal Satisfaction

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Resident, Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 28, 2023
• First Posted: July 17, 2023
• Study Start: August 1, 2023
• Primary Completion: September 30, 2023
• Study Completion: January 31, 2024
• Last Updated: May 9, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-05

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

CA (1)