Burnout and coping strategies among future healthcare professionals: A structural equation modelling approach

Abstract

Background/Aim. To reduce the risk of burnout development of medical professionals, it is important to identify the contributing factors as early as in their schooling years. The aim of this research is to propose a model that will determine the relationship between the coping strategies medical high school and medical faculty students use, and burnout. Methods. The cross-sectional study included 164 medical high school students (80.5% female and 19.5% male students) and 344 students of the University of Belgrade - Faculty of Medicine (76.9% female and 23.1% male students). The model exploring the relationship between coping strategies (measured by Brief COPE scale) and burnout (measured by CBI-S scale) was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis. Results. When coping with stress, medical high school students use Acceptance, Venting, Behavioural Disengagement, and Planning that increase their burnout, and they do not use any strategies that would help them reduce burnout. When coping with stress, medical faculty students use Planning, Acceptance, Humour, Venting, Behavioural Disengagement, Self-Blame, and Substance Use that increase their burnout and Positive Reframing which helps them reduce burnout. Conclusion. The results of this research show an evident lack of use of adaptive coping strategies with both groups of respondents. Proper education would help them replace these dysfunctional coping strategies with more constructive ones.