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What is medical student burnout?

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We have recently featured an article from the respected Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA in our blog. This highlighted the important issue of ‘burnout’ amoung medical students, found in upwards of 50% of those studying in the US.

We thought we would offer some thoughts on burnout for you, a view from a general practitioner, and an option to answer some questions to see if you are exhibiting features of burnout.

What is Burnout?

Burnout is the term given to long term physical and emotional exhaustion, and a lack of interest particularly related to an individual’s occupation (we consider this to be ‘being a medical student’).

Its simple to think of burnout as the consequence of long term professional and social stresses that are signs that you may be struggling as a student. Important? Yes, as the suggestion from the research in the US is that students who are suffering from burnout (as opposed to depression and other medical problems) are more likely to behave in an unprofessional manner. This is a real concern, given the penalties and problems associated with this behaviour in both the short and the long term.

Why is burnout important?

Interestingly, and perhaps surprisingly the research evidence suggests that students who are suffering from other medical problems, such as depression, are no more likely to engage in unprofessional behaviour (e.g. cheating) than compared to other student’s not suffering form that ailment. This is not the same for burnout. When you consider things, its perhaps unsurprising that the we  struggle with openness and candour when you are struggling mentally with your medical school burnout.

How do I know If I’m experiencing burnout?

Unfortunately the best validated burnout tests are not available freely, so we can’t offer you a validated scoring system here! Nevertheless, instead of taking a validated self-reported test, we are giving you the opportunity to work through our own simple checklist, which has the advantage of being tailored especially for medical students. Its quick, free, and you can take it here.