The Impact of Musical Engagement on Medical Resident Well-being

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.

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Key information

Conditions

Burnout Behavior Behavioral Symptoms Burnout, Psychological Music Music Therapy Personal Satisfaction Physical Disability Psychological Well-Being Resident Doctor Stress Stress, Psychological Student Burnout Wellness, Psychological

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

McMaster University

Hamilton, Ontario, L8S4L8, Canada

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

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

Exclusion criteria

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

Treatment and study plan

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.

Primary outcomes

Improvement of burnout symptoms

Time frame: Eight weeks

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.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Conor Donnelly

Other

Registry information

Important dates

Study start: 2023
Primary completion: 2023
Study completion: 2024
First posted: Jul 17, 2023
Registry last updated: May 9, 2025

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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