Commensality Groups: A Professional Fulfillment Intervention for Medical Students in Their Clinical Years

NCT06656650 | Active Not Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: UP-24-00919
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 80
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Medical students are at high risk for burnout, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and substance use disorder with burnout seen as a mitigating factor for suicidal ideation. Help-seeking among medical students suffering from burnout is only 30%. The highest rates of burnout among medical students is at the end of their clinical rotations, with estimates of up to 60%. "Commensality groups" have been found to significantly reduce burnout and improve meaning in work by creating opportunity for connection and collegiality among physicians. These groups consist of providing a reimbursed monthly meal with structured questions that generate conversation for the first 15 minutes with 6-8 participants meeting monthly, for six months. Physician participants in Commensality groups maintain these gains one year later. The investigators propose to apply the model of Commensality groups to medical students who are launching into their experience clinical practice, and have been on clinical rotations for at least 4 months. The investigators will form randomly assigned groups of 6-8 medical students with 1 resident leader. The resident leader role has been added to encourage compliance with the standardized discussion questions and to avoid the potential negative impact of a "venting" session. The overall intention of this study is to explore whether Commensality groups can increase well-being for medical students in their clerkship years, as it has previously been shown to do for residents and physicians.

Conditions

Professional Fulfillment; Burnout; Social Isolation or Loneliness

Keywords

commensality groups; medical students

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Survey

  Survey containing 5 evidence-based measures

  Baseline (within one month prior to launch of study), immediately post intervention (within one month after final intervention), approximately 3 months after the final intervention, and approximately 6 months after the final intervention

Study Arms (2)

Treatment group

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Participants attend commensality groups

Behavioral: Commensality groups

Waitlist control group

NO INTERVENTION

Participants receive no intervention

Interventions

Commensality groups BEHAVIORAL

Participants will attend at least 3 out of 6 commensality groups over the course of 6 months.

Treatment group

Eligibility Criteria

• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Currently a medical student on clerkships at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California

You may not qualify if:

• Not currently on a leave of absence, research year, or otherwise not enrolled in the medical school program

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Southern California: lead

Study Sites (1)

Keck School of Medicine

Los Angeles, California, 90033, United States

Location

Related Publications (9)

• West CP, Dyrbye LN, Rabatin JT, Call TG, Davidson JH, Multari A, Romanski SA, Hellyer JM, Sloan JA, Shanafelt TD. Intervention to promote physician well-being, job satisfaction, and professionalism: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Intern Med. 2014 Apr;174(4):527-33. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.14387.

  PMID: 24515493 BACKGROUND

• Shanafelt TD, Hasan O, Dyrbye LN, Sinsky C, Satele D, Sloan J, West CP. Changes in Burnout and Satisfaction With Work-Life Balance in Physicians and the General US Working Population Between 2011 and 2014. Mayo Clin Proc. 2015 Dec;90(12):1600-13. doi: 10.1016/j.mayocp.2015.08.023.

  PMID: 26653297 BACKGROUND

• Hansell MW, Ungerleider RM, Brooks CA, Knudson MP, Kirk JK, Ungerleider JD. Temporal Trends in Medical Student Burnout. Fam Med. 2019 May;51(5):399-404. doi: 10.22454/FamMed.2019.270753.

  PMID: 31081911 BACKGROUND

• Dyrbye L, Shanafelt T. A narrative review on burnout experienced by medical students and residents. Med Educ. 2016 Jan;50(1):132-49. doi: 10.1111/medu.12927.

  PMID: 26695473 BACKGROUND

• Dyrbye LN, Thomas MR, Massie FS, Power DV, Eacker A, Harper W, Durning S, Moutier C, Szydlo DW, Novotny PJ, Sloan JA, Shanafelt TD. Burnout and suicidal ideation among U.S. medical students. Ann Intern Med. 2008 Sep 2;149(5):334-41. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-149-5-200809020-00008.

  PMID: 18765703 BACKGROUND

• Dyrbye LN, Thomas MR, Shanafelt TD. Systematic review of depression, anxiety, and other indicators of psychological distress among U.S. and Canadian medical students. Acad Med. 2006 Apr;81(4):354-73. doi: 10.1097/00001888-200604000-00009.

  PMID: 16565188 BACKGROUND

• Rotenstein LS, Ramos MA, Torre M, Segal JB, Peluso MJ, Guille C, Sen S, Mata DA. Prevalence of Depression, Depressive Symptoms, and Suicidal Ideation Among Medical Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JAMA. 2016 Dec 6;316(21):2214-2236. doi: 10.1001/jama.2016.17324.

  PMID: 27923088 BACKGROUND

• Dyrbye LN, Eacker A, Durning SJ, Brazeau C, Moutier C, Massie FS, Satele D, Sloan JA, Shanafelt TD. The Impact of Stigma and Personal Experiences on the Help-Seeking Behaviors of Medical Students With Burnout. Acad Med. 2015 Jul;90(7):961-9. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000655.

  PMID: 25650824 BACKGROUND

• Dyrbye LN, West CP, Satele D, Boone S, Tan L, Sloan J, Shanafelt TD. Burnout among U.S. medical students, residents, and early career physicians relative to the general U.S. population. Acad Med. 2014 Mar;89(3):443-51. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000134.

  PMID: 24448053 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Burnout, Psychological; Social Isolation

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Stress, Psychological; Behavioral Symptoms; Behavior; Social Behavior

Study Officials

• Chantal Sheridan, PhD

  Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Maria Juliani, PhD

  Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California

  STUDY DIRECTOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 18, 2024
• First Posted: October 24, 2024
• Study Start: January 15, 2025
• Primary Completion: February 15, 2026
• Study Completion: February 15, 2026
• Last Updated: January 21, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-01

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ICF
• Time Frame: Beginning 3 months and ending 2 years after the publication of results.
• Access Criteria: Investigators whose proposed use of the data has been approved by an independent review committee identified for this purpose.

Locations

US (1)