BurnoutNCT07886944
PATH to Reducing Burnout Among Peers Who Deliver Overdose Prevention Services (R33 Phase Clinical Trial)
A study testing PATH (Peer Advanced Training for total Health) in people with Burnout and Secondary Trauma, run by Chestnut Health Systems at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
The investigators propose to test the effectiveness of PATH (Peer Advanced Training for total Health) as an educational workforce intervention for improving peer recovery support specialists' (PRSS) overdose prevention (OP) service delivery ability and quality and as a PRSS workforce and service system support. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and older
- Conditions the study is for
- Burnout, Secondary Trauma, Compassion Fatigue
- What is being tested?
- PATH (Peer Advanced Training for total Health)
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 200 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 12 Oct 2026to Sep 2029
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- Not yet: the study is under way
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- No healthy volunteers
- Adult, Older adult
Survey inclusion criteria are:
-Current peer recovery support specialist (PRSS) staff, including employee or volunteer, of a participating Recovery Community Organization (RCO)
PRSS semi-structured qualitative interview inclusion criteria are:
- Current PRSS who delivers direct, individualized peer recovery coaching services at a participating RCO,
- Employed at their organization for at least 90 days.
Administrator semi-structured qualitative interview inclusion criteria are:
-Current administrator at a participating RCO
Client semi-structured qualitative interview inclusion criteria are:
- Has has service contact with the RCO at least 90 days prior to the RCO's PATH completion date
- Has one or more nuanced harm reduction goals in the recovery plan (i.e., goals extending beyond basic overdose prevention)
- Has received services from a PRSS participating in the post-PATH semi-structured interview
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.
United States1 site
Chestnut Health Systems Lighthouse Institute
Chicago, Illinois, 60610
About this study
Official title: PATH to Reducing Burnout Among Peers Who Deliver Overdose Prevention Services: Improving Workforce and Service System Outcomes Through a Combined eLearning and Group Consultation Intervention (R33 Phase Clinical Trial)
The investigators propose to test the effectiveness of PATH (Peer Advanced Training for total Health) as an educational workforce intervention for improving peer recovery support specialists' (PRSS) overdose prevention (OP) service delivery ability and quality and as a PRSS workforce and service system support. The PATH intervention combines (a) virtual education and (b) case-based consultation. The investigators hypothesize that PATH will improve organizational-level PRSS burnout, additional workforce outcomes, and OP service quality.
Read the detailed description
This trial will test the effectiveness of the PATH intervention with 10 Recovery Community Organizations (RCOs) to understand its impact on workforce outcomes. PATH will be administered to all peer recovery support specialist (PRSS) staff and administrators from each of the RCOs. Using a stepped-wedged design (SWD), the investigators will implement the PATH intervention with RCOs in dyads. A new dyad will begin PATH approximately every 4 months.
Participants of PATH will be invited to complete electronic surveys at 8 time points, beginning 3 months before the first dyad begins PATH and subsequently every 4 months. Each survey will be distributed to all PRSS staff and administrators from the 10 RCOs, regardless of when their dyad participates in PATH. Surveys measures include demographics, job crafting, burnout, compassion satisfaction/fatigue, secondary trauma, moral injury, boundaries assessment, health outcomes productivity, overdose prevention (OP) stigma, and OP knowledge, attitudes, and skills. Each survey will repeat these measures and take approximately 25-35 minutes to complete. An additional, separate 5-minute electronic survey will be distributed to PATH participants following their dyad's eLearning and ECHO completion to measure training satisfaction. All surveys will be collected in REDCap. Personalized survey links and survey reminders will be sent directly to each participant's email address. Additionally, the investigators will track and obtain administrative PATH training data for the eLearning modules and ECHO meetings, including engagement and attendance, to understand the dose and duration of PATH involvement.
A randomly selected subset of PATH participants from each dyad (2 PRSS and 1 administrator per RCO) will be invited to participate in qualitative semi-structured interviews at 2 time points: 30 days pre-PATH and 30-60 days post-PATH. Each interview will last approximately 45-60 minutes, be audio-recorded, and be conducted via Zoom. Interviews questions will focus on: (a) harm reduction job demands and resources; (b) how harm reduction work is conducted; (c) how stressors and motivators impact harm reduction work; (d) the quality of PRSS-client relationships; (e) how clients experience offered harm reduction services; (f) how harm reduction principles are integrated within services delivered/received; and (g) how PATH participation impacted services (post-PATH only).
A purposeful sample of 8 clients per dyad (4 per RCO) will also be invited to participate in qualitative semi-structured interview at 1 time point: 30-60 days post-PATH. The interview will last 45-50 minutes, be audio-recorded, and be conducted via Zoom. Interview questions will focus on: (a) addiction and treatment history, (b) recovery pathway, (c) recovery services history, (d) recovery plan and harm reduction, (e) relationships with peers.
To further assess the impact of PATH on a client-level service delivery, we will also obtain a complete sample of de-identified client-level records from each of the 10 RCOs. Data will contain client-level records, including demographic information, service delivery information, and recovery plan information. Data obtained will reflect the initial 28-month period of the study. Investigators will work with the State's data broker to merge these records with state-level criminal justice, health service, and recovery service records.
- Conditions
- Burnout, Secondary Trauma, Compassion Fatigue, Opioid Use Disorder, Stimulant Use Disorder, Substance Use Disorder
- Being tested
- PATH (Peer Advanced Training for total Health)
- Keywords
- peer recovery support specialist, substance use disorder, overdose prevention
- Medical subject headings
- Burnout, Psychological, Compassion Fatigue, Opioid-Related Disorders, Substance-Related Disorders
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
PATH (Peer Advanced Training for total Health)Behavioural
PATH is an educational workforce intervention for improving peer recovery support specialists' (PRSS) overdose prevention (OP) service delivery ability and quality and as a PRSS workforce and service system support. PATH includes 4 hours of eLearning modules completed within a 1-month period, as well as 8 weekly ECHO sessions lasting 1.5 hours each delivered over 2 months. Each ECHO session includes a 30-minute presentation followed by one hour of case-based discussion about a real client or problem. The entire PATH intervention takes 16 hours (4 hours of eLearning and 12 hours of ECHO participation) over 3 months. Participants are expected to complete all 16 hours, completing the 4 hours of eLearning before starting the 12 hours of ECHO activities
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| PATH clinical trial participants | Experimental | Receive PATH clinical trial intervention Receives: Behavioral: PATH (Peer Advanced Training for total Health) |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Job Approach Crafting
Measured using the Approach domains of the Approach-Avoidance Job Crafting Scale (AAJCS). The measure assesses behavioral and cognitive strategies staff use to increase positive work resources and challenges.
Measured: Every 4 months from enrollment to 29 months post-enrollment.
Secondary outcomes (5)
Job Avoidance Crafting
Measured using the Avoidance domains of the Approach-Avoidance Job Crafting Scale (AAJCS). The measure assesses behavioral and cognitive strategies staff use to avoid or distance themselves from stressful or unhelpful work demands.
Measured: Every 4 months from enrollment to 29 months post-enrollment.
Professional Quality of Life
Measured using the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL v.5), which assesses three dimensions of workforce well-being over the past 30 days: Compassion Satisfaction, Burnout, and Secondary Traumatic Stress.
Measured: Every 4 months from enrollment to 29 months post-enrollment.
Overdose Prevention Knowledge, Attitudes, and Skills
Measured using the Harm Reduction Knowledge, Attitudes, and Skills scale, which is a 13-item measure that assesses overdose prevention learning outcomes.
Measured: Every 4 months from enrollment to 29 months post-enrollment.
Overdose Prevention Recovery Plan Integration
This is the extent to which individual overdose prevention strategies are included in client recovery plans. This will be measured by reviewing client recovery plans and identifying the number of overdose prevention approaches incorporated in each plan, which requires peer understanding of clients' individualized needs as it relates to substance use and community supervision terms. This measure will be calculated by reviewing and qualitatively coding all instances of overdose prevention within recovery plan documents and then averaging across all documents at each time point by staff person and site.
Measured: From enrollment to 29 months post-enrollment
Client Retention
Measured taking the total number of clients served by the program for a minimum of 30 days within the month and dividing it by the total number of clients served in that month. Measured using RCO-level administrative data.
Measured: From enrollment to 29 months post-enrollment
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted21 Oct 2026
- Study start12 Oct 2026
- Primary completionMar 2029 (estimated)
- Study completionSep 2029 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for BurnoutStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Health services research
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Model description
- This study follows a combined stepped-wedge design (SWD) mixed methods approach. The SWD is a cluster crossover design for which each cluster/cohort acts as its own control until it switches to the intervention group at a designated time point. Ten Recovery Community Organizations (RCOs) were stratified based on total staffing levels to ensure balanced representation of organizational capacity across cohorts. The five RCOs with the lowest total staff counts were assigned to the lower-staff stratum, and the five with the highest staff counts were assigned to the higher-staff stratum. Within each stratum, RCOs were randomly assigned using a computer-generated simple randomization procedure. One RCO from each stratum was then paired to form each cohort. The SWD uses open cohort data, allowing new staff and clients from the RCO to enter at any given time point during the observation window.
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 200 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Chestnut Health Systems
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- University of Utah, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Dennis Watson, Chestnut Health Systems
- Investigators
- Dennis P Watson, PhD, Principal investigator, Chestnut Health Systems
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07886944
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- R33DA061340
- Other IDs
- R33DA061340
- Status last verified
- Oct 2026
- First submitted
- 15 Oct 2026
- Last updated
- 21 Oct 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- Yes
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 21 Oct 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- PATH to Reducing Burnout Among Peers Who Deliver Overdose Prevention Services: Improving Workforce and Service System Outcomes Through a Combined eLearning and Group Consultation Intervention (R33 Phase Clinical Trial)
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07886944
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- R33DA061340
- Conditions
- Burnout, Secondary Trauma, Compassion Fatigue, Opioid Use Disorder, Stimulant Use Disorder, Substance Use Disorder
- Keywords
- peer recovery support specialist, substance use disorder, overdose prevention
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Enrolling by invitation
- Enrolment
- 200 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- Chestnut Health SystemsUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- University of Utah, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
- Study start
- 12 Oct 2026 (actual)
- Primary completion
- Mar 2029 (estimated)
- Study completion
- Sep 2029 (estimated)
- First posted
- 21 Oct 2026 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
The investigators propose to test the effectiveness of PATH (Peer Advanced Training for total Health) as an educational workforce intervention for improving peer recovery support specialists' (PRSS) overdose prevention (OP) service delivery ability and quality and as a PRSS workforce and service system support. The PATH intervention combines (a) virtual education and (b) case-based consultation. The investigators hypothesize that PATH will improve organizational-level PRSS burnout, additional workforce outcomes, and OP service quality.
Detailed description
This trial will test the effectiveness of the PATH intervention with 10 Recovery Community Organizations (RCOs) to understand its impact on workforce outcomes. PATH will be administered to all peer recovery support specialist (PRSS) staff and administrators from each of the RCOs. Using a stepped-wedged design (SWD), the investigators will implement the PATH intervention with RCOs in dyads. A new dyad will begin PATH approximately every 4 months.
Participants of PATH will be invited to complete electronic surveys at 8 time points, beginning 3 months before the first dyad begins PATH and subsequently every 4 months. Each survey will be distributed to all PRSS staff and administrators from the 10 RCOs, regardless of when their dyad participates in PATH. Surveys measures include demographics, job crafting, burnout, compassion satisfaction/fatigue, secondary trauma, moral injury, boundaries assessment, health outcomes productivity, overdose prevention (OP) stigma, and OP knowledge, attitudes, and skills. Each survey will repeat these measures and take approximately 25-35 minutes to complete. An additional, separate 5-minute electronic survey will be distributed to PATH participants following their dyad's eLearning and ECHO completion to measure training satisfaction. All surveys will be collected in REDCap. Personalized survey links and survey reminders will be sent directly to each participant's email address. Additionally, the investigators will track and obtain administrative PATH training data for the eLearning modules and ECHO meetings, including engagement and attendance, to understand the dose and duration of PATH involvement.
A randomly selected subset of PATH participants from each dyad (2 PRSS and 1 administrator per RCO) will be invited to participate in qualitative semi-structured interviews at 2 time points: 30 days pre-PATH and 30-60 days post-PATH. Each interview will last approximately 45-60 minutes, be audio-recorded, and be conducted via Zoom. Interviews questions will focus on: (a) harm reduction job demands and resources; (b) how harm reduction work is conducted; (c) how stressors and motivators impact harm reduction work; (d) the quality of PRSS-client relationships; (e) how clients experience offered harm reduction services; (f) how harm reduction principles are integrated within services delivered/received; and (g) how PATH participation impacted services (post-PATH only).
A purposeful sample of 8 clients per dyad (4 per RCO) will also be invited to participate in qualitative semi-structured interview at 1 time point: 30-60 days post-PATH. The interview will last 45-50 minutes, be audio-recorded, and be conducted via Zoom. Interview questions will focus on: (a) addiction and treatment history, (b) recovery pathway, (c) recovery services history, (d) recovery plan and harm reduction, (e) relationships with peers.
To further assess the impact of PATH on a client-level service delivery, we will also obtain a complete sample of de-identified client-level records from each of the 10 RCOs. Data will contain client-level records, including demographic information, service delivery information, and recovery plan information. Data obtained will reflect the initial 28-month period of the study. Investigators will work with the State's data broker to merge these records with state-level criminal justice, health service, and recovery service records.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Health services research
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 1
- Model description
- This study follows a combined stepped-wedge design (SWD) mixed methods approach. The SWD is a cluster crossover design for which each cluster/cohort acts as its own control until it switches to the intervention group at a designated time point. Ten Recovery Community Organizations (RCOs) were stratified based on total staffing levels to ensure balanced representation of organizational capacity across cohorts. The five RCOs with the lowest total staff counts were assigned to the lower-staff stratum, and the five with the highest staff counts were assigned to the higher-staff stratum. Within each stratum, RCOs were randomly assigned using a computer-generated simple randomization procedure. One RCO from each stratum was then paired to form each cohort. The SWD uses open cohort data, allowing new staff and clients from the RCO to enter at any given time point during the observation window.
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| PATH clinical trial participants | Experimental | Behavioral: PATH (Peer Advanced Training for total Health)Receive PATH clinical trial intervention |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Not accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| PATH (Peer Advanced Training for total Health)PATH is an educational workforce intervention for improving peer recovery support specialists' (PRSS) overdose prevention (OP) service delivery ability and quality and as a PRSS workforce and service system support. PATH includes 4 hours of eLearning modules completed within a 1-month period, as well as 8 weekly ECHO sessions lasting 1.5 hours each delivered over 2 months. Each ECHO session includes a 30-minute presentation followed by one hour of case-based discussion about a real client or problem. The entire PATH intervention takes 16 hours (4 hours of eLearning and 12 hours of ECHO participation) over 3 months. Participants are expected to complete all 16 hours, completing the 4 hours of eLearning before starting the 12 hours of ECHO activities | Behavioural | PATH clinical trial participants |
Primary outcome
Job Approach Crafting
Time frame: Every 4 months from enrollment to 29 months post-enrollment.
Measured using the Approach domains of the Approach-Avoidance Job Crafting Scale (AAJCS). The measure assesses behavioral and cognitive strategies staff use to increase positive work resources and challenges.
5 secondary outcomes
Job Avoidance Crafting
Time frame: Every 4 months from enrollment to 29 months post-enrollment.
Professional Quality of Life
Time frame: Every 4 months from enrollment to 29 months post-enrollment.
Overdose Prevention Knowledge, Attitudes, and Skills
Time frame: Every 4 months from enrollment to 29 months post-enrollment.
Overdose Prevention Recovery Plan Integration
Time frame: From enrollment to 29 months post-enrollment
Client Retention
Time frame: From enrollment to 29 months post-enrollment
Results and safety
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 21 Oct 2026.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: Yes
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part.
Dennis P Watson, PhD principal investigator
Chestnut Health Systems
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing PATH (Peer Advanced Training for total Health) in people with Burnout and Secondary Trauma, run by Chestnut Health Systems at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: enrolling by invitation, as of the sponsor's last update on 21 Oct 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Job Approach Crafting (time frame: Every 4 months from enrollment to 29 months post-enrollment.). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 21 Oct 2026.