Burnout Level in Medical Residents Doing Internship in Emergency Medicine Hospital before the Pandemic

Abstract

The review of modern studies on the issue of professional burnout in young doctors and medical residents revealed the highest emotional distress in young residents doing internships in intensive care and emergency units. The paper presents the results of the study on 143 medical residents in the multi-profile hospital of emergency medicine. The methodical complex used included Maslach Burnout Inventory, Symptom Checklist‐90‐Revised (SCL-90-R) by L. Derogatis, and a survey on the attitude to professional troubles. Most young doctors pointed out the close relationship between problems with physical health and emotional wellbeing to their professional activity. The vast majority of the participants met the criteria for burnout, as indicated by high emotional exhaustion (69%) and depersonalization (85%) indications from the Maslach Inventory. Although most residents didn’t endorse any problems in communicating with the patients, their high level of depersonalization is more likely to attest to formalizing their relationships with the patients as opposed to having high social competence. The yielded results let us conclude that it is necessary to develop and implement into training programs for medical residents of the multi-profile hospital of emergency medicine programs promoting their communication competence, coping with distress, and preventing professional burnout.

Keywords

• professional burnout of medical residents
• emotional exhaustion
• depersonalization
• professional successfulness
• emotional distress
• mental health