Medical students’ occupational burnout and its relationship with professionalism

Introduction: Occupational burnout is a prevalent syndromeamong medical students as well as other health professionals. Itmay be an important factor contributing to professional conducts.The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of burnoutamong medical students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciencesat clinical level and its relationship with professionalism.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, all medical clinicalstudents who had spent a minimum of six months of the firstyear of clinical level and who were in their final year, in 2015-16were examined (using the census method). Data were gatheredusing demographics, educational background, and the dimensionsof professionalism questionnaires and Maslach Job BurnoutInventory. Data analysis was performed using descriptivestatistics, ANOVA and Pearson correlation test by SPSS, version14. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: The total mean score of burnout was 61.37±20.44(moderate). In this study, 54.3% of the students had low, 35.2%moderate and 10.4% high job burnout. There was a negativecorrelation between job burnout and professional ethics withPearson correlation test (p<0.000, r=0.23). There was nosignificant relationship between the increase in academic yearsand burnout.Conclusion: Regarding the high prevalence of burnout and itsadverse effects among medical students, developing a workplaceassistance program and adequate facilities to help them is necessary.Also, due to the negative correlation between professionalismand burnout, continuous training of professional ethics should betaken into consideration by educational authorities.Keywords: Burnout, Professional ethics, Medical students