Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Chronic stress and burnout are highly prevalent among academically trained healthcare professionals, negatively affecting their well-being and capacity to engage in their work. Resilience to stress develops early in one's career path, hence offering resilience training to university students in these professions is one approach to fostering well-being and mental health. The aim of this study is to assess whether offering mindfulness-based resilience training to university students in healthcare professions reduces their perceived chronic stress. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The study has a hybrid design combining a longitudinal observational cohort with a nested randomized controlled trial (RCT) with sequential multiple assignment and multistage adaptive interventions while taking participants' preferences into account. All students in healthcare related programmes at the Erasmus University Rotterdam are invited to participate. Within the observational cohort, students with a score of 14 or higher on the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) are invited to take part in the RCT (n = 706). Eligible participants are randomized to control or active intervention in a ratio of 1:6. Those randomized to the control group and non-randomized participants in the cohort receive passive web-based psychoeducation about chronic stress and burnout through referral to specific websites. Participants randomized to the intervention group receive one of 8 active mindfulness-based interventions. They select a rank order of 4 preferred interventions and are randomized across these with equal probability. Non-response to the intervention is followed by sequential randomized assignment to another intervention, for a total maximum of 3 sequential interventions. All participants receive questionnaires at baseline, before and after each 8-week intervention period, and at 1- and 2-year follow-up. The primary outcome is perceived chronic stress measured with the PSS. Secondary outcomes include mental well-being, burnout, quality of life, healthcare utilization, drug use, bodyweight, mental and physical stress-related symptoms, resilience, and study progress. ETHICS AND REGISTRATION: Approval from the Medical Ethics Review Committee was obtained under protocol number MEC-2018-1645. The trial is registered in the Netherlands National Trial Register by registration number NL7623, 22/03/2019, https://www.trialregister.nl/.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Article number | 106928 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Contemporary Clinical Trials |
Volume | 122 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We acknowledge the valuable contributions, dedication, and hard work of the trainers and student research team members in performing the DESTRESS study. Furthermore, we greatly appreciate the input of the involved staff members of the Erasmus University Medical Centre. We are also thankful for the student sounding board and the Erasmus University Medical Centre student council for their advice and all students participating in the study.
Funding Information:
The DESTRESS study is funded by the Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam from the budget for quality improvement (“Studievoorschotmiddelen”) as an intervention to promote student well-being. Project token: ProjectSVM 108332. Erasmus MC, Department of Education, PO BOX 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, the Netherlands. This funding source had no role in the design of this study and will not have any role in its execution, analyses, interpretation of the data or decision to submit results.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors