Journal of Education and Health Promotion

The factors affecting academic burnout in medical students of Mashahd University of Medical Sciences in 2013-2015

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

. Nasrin Shokrpour
. Leila Bazrafcan 1
. Amir Rezaei Ardani 2
. Shabnam Nasiraei 3

1 Clinical Education Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

2 Psychiatry Department, Mashahd University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

3 Education Development Center, Mashahd University of Medical Sciences, Mashahd, Iran

Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Academic burnout is one of the issues involving the educational systems at all
levels, which wastes the human resources and expenditures. Academic burnout refers to the sense
of exhaustion due to educational requirements, the sense of cynicism and indifference, and the
sense of lack of competence. Considering the fact that burnout has already been studied in different
professions and in cultures different from that of ours, there is a need to identify these factors among
the Iranian medical students and accordingly propose some strategies to reduce burnout symptoms
among these students. With this end, this study aimed to identify and quantify the importance of
possible factors causing burnout among medical students in the 2nd and 4th years of their studies in
Mashahd University of Medical Sciences and provide some suggestions.
METHODS: The present research is a cross‑sectional study conducted in 2017. The participants
included medical students who had entered Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in Iran in 2013
and 2015 and were in their 4th and 2nd year of their studies in the university. A questionnaire prepared
and validated by Maslach et al. was used to collect the data and distributed among 195 participants
who were selected randomly as the sample.
RESULTS: The results showed that the mean scores given by 195 selected respondents regarding
emotional exhaustion, indifference, and inefficiency were respectively 3.89, 3.87 and 4.12 out of 7.
CONCLUSION: Based on the results, students had the highest level of academic burnout in
personal inefficiency or incompetence component and the lowest level was observed in indifference.
Therefore, burnout and its components were explicitly seen among medical students; the authorities
are recommended to take measures to reduce academic burnout among the students.

Keywords

Academic burnout
emotional exhaustion
indifference
inefficiency
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Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 10, Issue 9
September 2020
Pages 1-6

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