Reduced burnout in medical and health science students during the pandemic COVID-19 - a follow-up study of a single institution in Hungary

• Published in: BMC medical education Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 1 - 893
• Main Authors: Sipos, David, Biro, Anett Anna, Busa, Flora, Freihat, Omar, Tollár, József, Pandur, Attila András, Kovács, Árpád, Deutsch, Krisztina, Csima, Melinda Petőné
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central Ltd 22-11-2023; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Analysis; Burn out (Psychology); Burnout; Consent; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 diagnostic tests; Cynicism; Data Analysis; Data collection; Education; Epidemics; Health aspects; Health sciences; Hospitals; Hungary; Infections; Maslach burnout inventory general survey for students scale; Medical personnel; Medical research; Medical students; Medicine; Mental health; Pandemics; Prevention; Psychological aspects; Quarantine; Questionnaires; Risk factors; Secondment; Social aspects; Student; Hungary
• ISSN: 1472-6920; 1472-6920
• DOI: 10.1186/s12909-023-04867-0

Background The coronavirus pandemic has significantly impacted lives worldwide, especially of medical and health science students. In Hungary, education has been relegated to the online space, with a substantial proportion of students having to attend medical secondments. Increased stress, uncertainty, and the presence of medical secondments can have an impact on students' premature burnout. Methods In 2021, we conducted a follow-up survey among students of the University of Pécs studying medicine and health sciences in two data collection periods (from March to May and September to November). Our online questionnaire consisted of the Maslach Burnout Inventory General Survey for Students and our self-designed questionnaire. We used descriptive and paired two-sample t-tests for data analysis at a 95% confidence interval (p [less than or equal to] 0.05). Results We excluded from our survey respondents whose data we could not follow-up; finally, 183 students' responses were analyzed. The majority of students were female (n = 148; 80.9%). Overall, there was a significant decrease in both exhaustion (EX) and cynicism (CY) scores (p = 0.001; p = 0.004). Female respondents had higher EX scores, but a significant decrease was observed for both genders (p [less than or equal to] 0.05). Excluding paramedic students, a significant decrease in EX scores was observed for the specialties we studied (p [less than or equal to] 0.05). General medicine students' CY scores decreased; physiotherapy students' profesisonal efficacy (PE) scores increased significantly (p [less than or equal to] 0.05). Students who were on medical secondments (n = 127; 69. 4%) were found to be more affected by burnout, but in all cases, these scores significantly improved (p [less than or equal to] 0.05). Students serving in the National Ambulance Service (n = 76; 41.5%), Hospitals (n = 44; 24.0%), or both (n = 7; 3.8%) had a significant decrease in their burnout score (p [less than or equal to] 0.05). Students who served in either a hospital or a hospital and National Ambulance Service had significantly improved CY and PE scores (p [less than or equal to] 0.05). Students concerned about their health had elevated EX and CY scores, which also improved (p [less than or equal to] 0.05). Conclusions In conclusion, medical secondments positively affected student burnout scores for medicine and health sciences students at our institution. This fact implies that it is necessary to have more internships in real-life settings during the training. Trial registration Our survey has been approved by the Medical Research Council (Case No IV/4573-1/2021/ECU). Keywords: Student, Burnout, COVID-19, Secondment, Maslach burnout inventory general survey for students scale