ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Minerva Psichiatrica 2017 June;58(2):97-102

DOI: 10.23736/S0391-1772.17.01922-7

Copyright © 2017 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Burnout assessment in medical interns and relationship with their coping strategy

Sorour NEMATPOUR ¹, Forouzan BEHROUZIAN ¹, Shahrzad FARASHBANDI ² ✉

¹ Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Golestan Hospital, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran; ² Student Research Committee, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran

BACKGROUND: Medicine is a stressful job which entails great responsibilities. The amount of learning that it requires is unparalleled in all other branches of science. Stress first appears in medical students, as they begin their academic career, and it keeps growing over time, especially when they start attending the hospital to practice patient care. This is indisputably a burnout factor. The aim of this study was to investigate coping mechanisms and burnout in interns.
METHODS: This is an epidemiologic study carried out in 84 interns who were randomly selected as a sample population. The Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Coping Strategies Questionnaire were administered to the sample population, and the collected data were analyzed using SPSS software v. 22.
RESULTS: In this study, 88% of interns suffered from burnout, being strongly (P=0.00) negatively associated with using coping strategies. In addition, 44% of participants had high levels of depersonalization, 50% had high levels of emotional exhaustion, and 88% suffered from lack of personal accomplishment, respectively. The most commonly used coping strategy was problem solving. No demographic factors (marital status and sex) except age were associated with burnout (P=0.298 and P=0.231); the burnout level increased with increasing age (P=0.19).
CONCLUSIONS: The results from this study suggest that a high percentage of the sample population suffers from burnout. Therefore, they needed to be supported by management and to learn how to use coping mechanisms to manage stress.

KEY WORDS: Medical education - Professional burnout - Psychological adaptation