A Comprehensive Wellness Program (SKY) to Mitigate Physician Burnout

Summary

The primary objective of the study was to determine whether the yoga-based breathing and meditation program SKY could improve wellness indicators in currently practicing physicians. The hypothesis of this study is that SKY is effective in reducing anxiety and depression, increasing subjective optimism, and reducing physician burnout in healthy, actively practicing physicians.

Conditions

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Stress
• Insomnia
• Optimism
• Interpersonal Disengagement
• Professional Fulfillment
• Work Exhaustion
• Self-reported Medical Errors
• Physician Burnout

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Meditation and breathing program : Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY)

The SKY sessions (3x1,5 h on consecutive days) included online instruction in gentle stretches ('office yoga' in a sitting position), specific breathing exercises and meditation, and discussion of cognitive/behavioral coping skills. After the 3-day program, participants asked to practice the techniques once a day for about 30 min. In addition, there were weekly group exercise sessions of 1 hour where all participants were asked to join.

BEHAVIORAL

Stress management education

This control intervention included viewing of educational videos on stress management and group discussions, where the sessions were equal in length to the SKY intervention. There were also weekly follow-up sessions as in the SKY group where the educational points were reviewed and experiences of the subjects during the previous week was discussed.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University Hospital, Akershus

  collaborator OTHER

• Koc University Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Ataturk Chest Diseases Education and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Oslo University Hospital

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

25 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-11-11

Primary Completion

2022-01-17

Completion

2022-03-20

Countries

• Turkey (Türkiye)

Study Locations