Introduction: Burnout is an occupational condition characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a low sense of personal accomplishment. While medical students begin schooling with mental health profiles similar to or better than peers who pursue other careers, there is a downward trajectory throughout school suggesting this phenomenon often originates in medical school. For physicians and residents, burnout has been linked to poor outcomes such as patient safety, might contribute to suicidal ideation and substance abuse, and may undermine professional development. Furthermore, there is a lack of surveillance of the prevalence of medical student burnout in a small-sized school setting.
Methods: The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), a 22-question survey, is largely accepted as the gold standard for assessment; however, we utilized the 7-question, Well-Being Index (WBI), which has been shown equal efficacy as the full MBI. Eligible participants were currently enrolled in their respective class at the East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine. Each year, a participant was given a WBI survey during the winter season (overall response rate 83%, n = 239).
Results: Overall the self-reported burnout rate over the two-year study period was 65.2% and was significantly higher in those reporting as female (71%). There was also variation tracking the class from one year to the next. The second year at this institution showed the highest reported amount of burnout (75%, n=145) while the lowest amount of burnout reported was during the fourth year at 47%.
Conclusions: Burnout experienced at this institution was reportedly higher than national average. There are limitations to this study as the periods in which medical students were asked to answer the survey were consistently at the same time in the calendar year, but the host institution’s curriculum had been changed so that it might not match up accordingly. Furthermore, class sizes changed from year to year and might skew the data. This information suggests that burnout prevalence is higher at Quillen College of Medicine and intervention strategies to address burnout should be pursued.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:asrf-1426 |
| Date | 12 April 2019 |
| Creators | Chan, Adam Y, Farabee, Elizabeth, Wholley, Grace, Blosser, Peter, Herring, Jordan L, Wallace, Richard L |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Appalachian Student Research Forum |
| Rights | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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