Pilot Intervention of Wearable Smart Device and Coaching to Improve Sleep, Well-being, and Professional Fulfilment among Female Clinicians in Primary Care

Authors

• Cheryl D. Stults, Sutter HealthFollow
• Sien Deng, Sutter HealthFollow
• Nina K. Szwerinski, Sutter HealthFollow
• Amandeep Mann, Sutter HealthFollow
• Sarina Le Sieur, Sutter HealthFollow
• Kimberly Ababseh, Sutter HealthFollow
• Tiffany Lam, Sutter HealthFollow
• Jill Kacher Cobb, Sutter HealthFollow
• Kelly Reilly, Sutter HealthFollow
• Stacey Upton, Sutter HealthFollow
• Dionyse Hartmann, Sutter HealthFollow
• Dennise Rosas, Sutter HealthFollow
• Laurie Gregg, Sutter HealthFollow

Funder

Sutter Health

Conflict of Interest

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare for this work.

Abstract

Introduction: Previous research has suggested an association between lack of sleep and well-being. Given higher rates of burnout among female clinicians, the Sutter Health “Joy of Work” team (a multidisciplinary group dedicated to improving organizational well-being) conducted a pilot among female clinicians in ambulatory services to assess factors associated with sleep, professional fulfillment, and intention to leave/reduce work hours.

Methods: The intervention consisted of several components: an Oura ring (a wearable smart ring device that tracks activity, sleep, and heart rate); health coaches who sent text messages to participants and advised those participants with additional resources and questions; and three online group education sessions with the health coaches and a physician sleep expert to support sleep hygiene and sleep behavioral change. Participants used the Oura ring for 8-12 weeks. Baseline and post-intervention surveys and Oura ring data were collected upon participants’ agreement. Fisher’s Exact test and Unpaired t-tests were used to assess associations between sleep and wellness indicators. Linear mixed-effect models were conducted to capture the weekly change of Oura ring sleep outcomes.

Results: Twenty-six clinicians completed the baseline survey and 19 completed the post-intervention survey. All 26 participants were female and composed of 23 physicians and 3 advanced practice clinicians. When asked if they believed they improved their sleep during the pilot experience, 78.9% reported yes/maybe. 82.2% reported improvements on their well-being. Regarding Oura ring sleep outcomes, the average nightly awake time and light sleep time were statistically significantly reduced by 1 minute and 3 minutes over the weeks. In comparison, the average deep sleep time was statistically significantly increased by 1 minute.

Conclusion: Understanding sleep patterns and health education on improving sleep quality may be associated with an increase in self-reported perceptions of overall well-being and professional fulfilment. The subjective improvements in well-being were combined with slight objective improvement in deep sleep time. Additional research is needed to understand the differences between subjective and objective measures of sleep and clinician well-being.

DOI

10.55504/2578-9333.1258

Recommended Citation

Stults, Cheryl D.; Deng, Sien; Szwerinski, Nina K.; Mann, Amandeep; Le Sieur, Sarina; Ababseh, Kimberly; Lam, Tiffany; Kacher Cobb, Jill; Reilly, Kelly; Upton, Stacey; Hartmann, Dionyse; Rosas, Dennise; and Gregg, Laurie (2026) "Pilot Intervention of Wearable Smart Device and Coaching to Improve Sleep, Well-being, and Professional Fulfilment among Female Clinicians in Primary Care," Journal of Wellness: Vol. 7 : Iss. 1 , Article 6.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55504/2578-9333.1258
Available at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/jwellness/vol7/iss1/6