Emergency medicine is notorious for its high rate of burnout and mental health issues. The emergency department (ED) is a high paced work environment dealing with life and death issues. Employees in the ED work shift times that are not conducive to a natural circadian rhythm. All of these factors lead to high rates of burnout and overall dissatisfaction with their career choice. These are known downsides of a career in emergency medicine, but little effort is put into addressing this issue in everyday EDs. Cell phones offer an easy and convenient means to participate in meditation. There are multiple evidence-based meditation apps available to cell phone users free of charge. Meditation has been shown to decrease burnout, rates of depression, and rates of anxiety. We hypothesize that weekly use of a meditation-based cell phone application will improve the mental health of emergency department employees as measured on various wellness inventories.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
100
Phone-based meditation application
University of Texas Austin
Austin, Texas, United States
RECRUITINGChange in depression score
Beck Depression Inventory, numeric score of 0-63 with a score of 63 being the most depressed
Time frame: 90 and 180 days
Change in anxiety score
Beck Anxiety Inventory, numeric score of 0-63 with a score of 63 being the most anxious
Time frame: 90 and 180 days
Change in stress levels
Perceived Stress Scale, numeric score of 0-40 with a score of 40 being the most stressed
Time frame: 90 and 180 days
Change in burnout level
Maslach Burnout Inventory, measures level of stress on a numeric scale
Time frame: 90 and 180 days, numeric scale between 0 and 6 with 6 being the highest score
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