Publication:

Comparative study of prevalence of burn out among medical students from two medical colleges in Eastern India

Background Emotional exhaustion, and reduced perception of personal accomplishment is commonly defined as burn out syndrome. This may develop when there is significant stress without adequate support and resources in the face of work overload, as commonly happens with physicians and undergraduate medical students.

Methods This work attempted to study the level of burn out among all the second professional medical students in two different medical colleges and compare the trends of an urban medical college with a college in the outskirts of the city. 278 students from two medical colleges participated in the study wherein they were given standard questionnaires for assessment of stress, support, satisfaction and control parameters.

Results Overall 169 students of the 278 (60.79%) interviewed had scores correlating with burn out. Both college students showed burnout in the various parameters individually like stress, lack of support, dissatisfaction, lack of control and perception of success. There was a significantly greater prevalence of burn out scores among students in the city college (123 students or 60.84%) compared to those studying in the rural medical college (46 students or 41.07%) (p ≤0.05)

Conclusions Burn out syndrome was more prevalent among city students compared to rural students. Individual as well as organizational interventions need to be targeted to prevent burnout among medical students.