Academic burnout, self-esteem, coping with stress and gratitude among Polish medical students – a cross sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: Academic burnout is emerging as an essential obstacle in education process. Students of the most challenging fields of study with high degrees of stress are thought to be at the highest risk. Medical studies are considered one of them. The aim of the study was to measure the levels of academic burnout, stress and gratitude among Polish medical students of Medical University of Lublin, and determine their styles of coping with stress. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a questionnaire comprised of the following: Maslach Burnout Inventory – Student Survey (MBI-SS), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES), a Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) and a Gratitude Questionnaire Six-Item form (GQ-6). The data was obtained from 773 medical students. Results: Total number of 169 students (21.86%) met criteria for academic burnout. When it comes to 354 participants, they displayed signs of low self-esteem (45.8%). The number of 18 students showed low level of gratitude, while gratitude level of the majority of them – 496 (64.17%) was high. The most common style of coping with stress was emotions-oriented style – 354 students (48.29%), followed by task-oriented style – 345 students (47.07%). Burnout subscales turned out to be associated with age, year of study, self-esteem, gratitude and different styles of coping with stress to the various extent. Conclusions: The prevalence of academic burnout among Polish medical students is high compared with general population across various occupations. Utilisation of protective characteristics of high self-esteem, gratitude and healthy coping methods can result in development of efficient anti-burnout prevention strategies and intervention tools.

Relationship Of Burnout with Screen Time In Under Graduate Medical Students

“…The findings of our study were corroborated by the results of several studies reporting an association of lack of well-being with burnout in medical students with high screen time in students. [21][22][23] We propose that medical institutions establish mechanisms to assess the self-perception of health among medical students to identify medical students who may have suboptimal well-being. Potential initiatives to implement such mechanisms include the strengthening of existing mentoring and counselling programs, as well as the development of new programs focused on supporting students' stress management, work-life balance and overall wellbeing.…”

Academic burnout in psychology and health-allied sciences: the BENDiT-EU program for students and staff in higher education

“…If not acknowledged and addressed, student burnout can have significant individual consequences ( Pokhrel et al, 2020 ; March-Amengual et al, 2022 ; Niedobylski et al, 2022 ) and high societal costs. For instance, burnout among physicians can have long-term effects on their job motivation and performance.…”

Academic Burnout of Polish Students: A Latent Profile Analysis

“…However, this is not a phenomenon limited only to the professional environment. With the increased interest in student health and well-being [ 1 ] (p. 249), it has also become clear that stress and the threat of burnout affect not only professionals but also university students [ 2 , 3 , 4 ], representing significant groups of people preparing to enter the labor market. As UNESCO data show, the number of students worldwide has more than doubled from 2000 to 2020 [ 5 ].…”