Protocol for a waitlist randomized controlled trial evaluating the HeartMath stress reduction program

Background Correctional officers face a high concentration of workplace stressors, manifesting in deleterious physical and mental health outcomes. In addition to health outcomes, chronic stress also leads to compromised occupational performance with downstream, negative implications for the institutions these officers work within, and the incarcerated individuals they are tasked with supervising. Despite these findings, there is limited research identifying effective interventions to improve officer health and wellbeing. Methods The detailed protocol for a five-year study focused on improving perceptions of job satisfaction, workplace safety, occupational stress, retention and absenteeism, punitive attitudes, and apprehension to employ use of force among correctional officers employed by Leon County Sheriff's Office ( N = 300). To do so, an individually randomized, multiple-cohort, staggered-entry, waitlist-controlled trial will be employed. Results The current study provides a critical theoretical and empirical overview of the presented intervention as well as a detailed summary of the protocols necessary to implement and evaluate the intervention in a sample of jail correctional officers, including a working example of the employed methodology, conceptual operationalization strategies, and analytic strategy. Discussion This study will provide critical information on the effectiveness of HeartMath in reducing stress and improving professional outcomes in jail correctional officers. The results also have both short- and long-term implications for policy and institutional training and practices. Finally, a discussion of the ways the employed methodology can be extended to alternative intervention strategies and populations is also provided.