Background: Work engagement has been an ongoing subject of interest within many organizations as it reflects employee well-being and can affect productivity, work outcomes, emotional health, and physical health (1). Stress levels in the work environment can lead to deterioration of sleep and work engagement and increase burnout (2). Heartfulness meditation is a simple heart-based meditation system aimed at attaining a balanced state of mind and may contribute to improved sleep and feelings of recovery (3). This study investigated whether having a 4-week heartfulness meditation program in a healthcare organization would result in decreasing burnout and improving sleep and work engagement.
Methods: This study was an 8-week randomized, controlled, single-center, single-blinded prospective crossover study conducted from April 2024 through July 2024 among healthcare workers in the WellSpan Health system. Responses to the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), Bergen Insomnia Scale (BIS), two burnout questions were collected at baseline, midpoint, and end of the study period.
Results: One hundred and seventeen participants completed the study, with 70 participants randomly assigned to the initial intervention group and 47 participants randomly assigned to the control group. At 4 weeks, after the first intervention period, 45 in the initial intervention group and 37 in the initial control group completed the surveys. There was a statistically significant difference in the mean burnout score (3.6 vs. 4.5, p=0.041), mean BIS score (8.8 vs. 20.2, p< 0.001), mean total UWES score (4.1 vs. 3.7, p=0.022), mean Utrecht vigor score (3.7 vs. 3.2, p=0.027), and mean Utrecht absorption score (4.1 vs. 3.7, p=0.033) between the two groups at the midpoint collection. After the crossover, the second intervention group demonstrated a decrease in mean burnout score, mean BIS score, and mean Utrecht scores, however when compared with the post-crossover control group, they were not statistically significant.
Conclusions: The current study is one of the first attempts to study work engagement, burnout, and sleep in healthcare professionals using a Heartfulness meditation intervention. The statistically significant differences seen at the midpoint surveys between the initial intervention and control groups suggest that Heartfulness meditation improves work engagement, burnout, and sleep in healthcare professionals, with the greatest change seen in sleep.