Burnout syndrome in premedical students

Abstract

Introduction: Student burnout syndrome is a psychosocial phenomenon, product of the chronicexposure to stressful stimulants due to the educational process. There are factors, like the highacademic requirements and the selection procedures, which trigger this syndrome in medicalstudents.

Objective: To determine the presence of burnout syndrome among the medicine degree stu-dents from the faculty of medicine.

Method: A prospective, cross-sectional and analytical study was performed on 344 group I andgroup II students of the propaedeutic courses of 2014. The One-dimensional Scale of StudentBurnout and a sociodemographic questionnaire were the tools used. The level of burnout wasdetermined according to the scale proposed by Barraza. The data was analysed using the 23rdSPSS statistic package.

Results: Presence of burnout was detected in both student groups. The group II students showedthe higher burnout level. This group was characterised by a higher enrolment and a lower age.There was no correlation between gender and burnout, or with the travel time to the campus.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates the presence of a mild level of burnout syndrome inmedical students. Increased enrolment could be a factor that could lead to the developmentof burnout.