Authored by Aziza A Alzubaidi*
Introduction
Burnout is a mental condition described as a prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job [1]. It is characterized by emotional exhaustion, energy depletion, a feeling of personal inefficacy and cynicism. Many studies concluded that medical student have high level of burnout, ranging from 45% to 50% [1-4]. One huge study done in Saudi Arabia, have reported that burnout level was very high among medical students (76.8%) [5]. Other study done in Lebanon found that burnout was higher among students in pre- clinic years comparing to clinic years (71%) [6,7].
Medical students usually experience more stressors than students from other departments [8-13]. These stressors have many negative impacts on both comprehension of medical students and their cognitive functioning [14]. Medical education stressors might also associate with negative impacts on the physical and mental health of medical students [11-15]. Which might affect not only the personal health of medical students and doctors but may affect the quality of patients care too [16,17].
In Saudi Arabia, our curriculum still considers traditional. We didn’t have any noteworthy changes in our pre-clinical and clinical years teaching techniques [17-21]. However, many researchers have concluded that medical students experience more stress when entering clinical environs. They become more inclined to experience compassion fatigue and burnout [22-25].
Despite the extensive data on medical student burnout increasing prevalence, to our knowledge, no national study has evaluated the factors associated with stress, burn out and depression among medical students and its effects on their performance [26-28].
Methods
We carried a cross-sectional study with an online-based data questionnaire on medical students from King Faisal University and Imam Abdel Rahman bin Faisal in Saudi Arabia. 328 medical students were invited to participate in the study Participation was entirely voluntary, and responses were anonymized.
Ethical consideration
Confidentiality was assured to all participants who agreed to participate in the study. The respondents were given a brief description of the study and its objectives.
Data analysis
After data extracted, were revised, coded, and fed to statistical software, IBM SPSS version 22. All statistical analysis was performed using two-tailed tests and an alpha error of 0.05. A P-value less than or equal to 0.05, considered to be statistically significant. Composite mean was calculated for different burnout domains and overall mean then categorized into the mild level if the mean was less than 50%, moderate for a mean of 50% to < 75%, and severe for a mean of 75% up to 100%. Descriptive analysis based on frequency and percent distribution was done for all demographics and burnout data. The relation between burnout level and students’ personal data or their GPA was tested using the Pearson chi-square test.
The study included 328 medical students, of which 55.8% were females and 54.3% from King Faisal University and 45.7% from Imam Abdel Rahman bin Faisal University. 51% of the students were at the preclinical stage (first to the third year), and 44.2% were at the clinical years, while 4.3% was an intern. Regarding GPA, 36.3% of the students had a low GPA, and 19.5% had either high or very high grades (Table 1).
Table 2 illustrates the frequency distribution of different burnout domains among the sampled students. Approximately onehalf (51%) of the students mostly feel Burn out, and 28.7% mostly feel the inability to take it anymore. As for work/study-related burnout, about one-half of the students (50.3%) had enough energy for family and friends during leisure time, and 37.2% feel that every working hour is tiring for them while only 8.8% feel worn out at the end of the working day. Considering colleagues related burnout, 64.9% of the participants wonder how long you will be able to continue working with colleagues, 64.1% tired in working with colleagues while 56.4% find it hard to work with colleagues. Considering teachers related burnout, 64.1% of the participants tired in working with teachers, 45.1% find it hard to work with teachers, and 47.9% wonder how long you will be able to continue working with teachers. Overall, 66.5% of the participants had mild personal burnout, while 2.7% had severe burnout. Additionally, 67% of the students had mild work/study-related burnout, and 3.7% had severe burnout. As for colleague related burnout, it was mild among 26.5% of the students and severe among 41.2% of the sample. About teachers’ related burnout, it was mild among 28% of the participants, while severe among 32.3% of them. Overall, 44.8% of the participants had mild burnout levels, and 7% had severe burnout (Figure 1).
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