Burnout syndrome in Spanish medical students

Abstract

Background Burnout syndrome is a frequent syndrome related to people that feel a deterioration in their daily activities due to highly demandant psychological requirements in their workplaces. Within last decades, this syndrome has been studied across medical professionals, concluding that stress levels that physicians suffer is high enough to make them develop burnout syndrome. In the case of medical students, there are some recent studies, although with small samples. For this reason, given that this phenomenon may produce a huge impact in medical students’ development, the aim of this study is to analyze the influential factors that may contribute to its occurrence. Methods The necessary information was gathered through a web-based questionnaire, divided in two parts. The first part of the survey included questions related to personal aspects of the students. Burnout related questions (second part) were divided in three subscales to evaluate exhaustion, cynicism, and academic efficacy levels. Results Family support for studying medicine is associated with lower burnout levels in all three scales of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The number of years spent in the degree show the opposite trend: the more years in the degree, the higher score in all burnout scales. Conclusions Burnout syndrome is a problem among medical students in Spain that increases with the number of years studying medicine. It should be also noticed that family support and vocational studies are independent factors related to lower levels of burnout.

Experiences of academic and professional burn-out in medical students and residents during first COVID-19 lockdown in Belgium: a mixed-method survey

“…Levels of the various burnout dimensions in our sample showed higher levels on professional emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation/cynicism than in a meta-analysis among medical students, but no difference on personal accomplishment [ 17 ]. Conversely, levels of academic emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation/cynicism were lower in our sample than in a Spanish study among medical students, but again showed no differences in personal accomplishment [ 42 ]. Considering limitations of cultural differences and that these comparison studies were conducted outside of the context of COVID-19, it may be prudent to conclude that the professional burnout dimensions of emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation/cynicism are relatively high in our study, and that academic burnout dimensions of emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation/cynicism are relatively low.…”

“…Levels of academic burnout were more moderate. A comparison with a study conducted in 2019, using the MBI-SS scale among medical students in Spain (no comparison in Belgium available) showed significantly lower rates of academic burnout in our sample than in the Spanish sample for EE ( n = 1073, M = 27.50 ± 7.16, t (1265) = -15.81, p < 0.001), for DP/CY ( n = 1073, M = 14.83 ± 7.09, t (1265) = -6.35, p < 0.001), but again showed no significant differences for PA ( n = 1073, M = 22.38 ± 6.89, t (1265) = -0.51, p = 0.61) [ 42 ].…”

Burnout in International Medical Students: Characterization of Professionalism and Loneliness as Predictive Factors of Burnout

“…These findings are also in consonance with studies previously reported in other cultural environments. Gil-Calderon and colleagues reported in Spanish medical students that family support is linked to lower scores on burnout measures [38]. In the United States, a positive family environment has been described as a source of happiness and a pleasant home atmosphere that allows medical students to relax from rigorous study, evaluations, and stressful clinical scenarios [39].…”

The Physical and Mental Well-Being of Medical Doctors in the Silesian Voivodeship

“…The importance of planning days devoted to rest and contact with other people, including those outside one’s professional circles, has been emphasized [ 29 ]. In addition, the results of research conducted in this area allow us to provide the following suggestion: information about the causes of burnout and methods of dealing with it should be introduced at the stage of preparation for the medical profession [ 24 , 30 , 31 ].…”