Clinical Encounters: Medical School

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AnnouncementsBurnout ImpactBurnout InterventionsBurnout PrevalenceCause of BurnoutVR Solution

Assess Burnout With 2 Questions?

Can a simple screening tool with just 2 questions identify burnout? A 2012 study by Dyrbye et al. investigates if two questions can provide an adequate assessment of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization measures seen in the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). West Colin P, Dyrbye Liselotte N, …

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What Works For Burnout Intervention?

Burnout is a growing problem among medical students and professionals. A number of burnout interventions exist, but sadly a recent review found few successes. Clough et al. completed a comprehensive review of interventions to address stress and burnout in physicians. Unfortunately, they found …

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Is This Burnout Intervention Helping?

How do we know if an intervention to address burnout is useful? In creating interventions to assist with burnout, it is important to assess satisfaction and the acceptability of those interventions. High satisfaction will facilitate engagement with the intervention, recommendations, and uptake …

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Economics of Burnout Interventions

Addressing burnout is profitable! In a world emphasizing profit, perhaps economic benefits should be one of the main arguments for promoting burnout interventions. Without such an argument, leaders of the field might assume that costs outweigh benefit and the status quo is acceptable. But …

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Burnout and Exercise – Get Moving

Take the time to build your physical strength and stamina. That's what a recent study of medical students by Dyrbye et al. advocates. The researchers looked at how much medical students employ aerobic exercise and strength training, as well as their ratings of quality of life and burnout. …

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Surgeons and Alcohol Use

The public is becoming increasingly aware of the risk of burnout in physicians, as seen in this Nov 30th NBC news segment. This report gets into the demands on time that many physicians experience, balancing patient care, paperwork, and schedules with their at-home demands of family and …

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Simple Screen for Burnout

The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is a great research tool, as it tracks burnout over a long period of time. However, this time-intensive commitment also limits its ability to be used across entire organizations, as they more likely want to see near-term burnout and the value of an …

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Moving Beyond Burnout Measures To Fulfillment

Most assessments of physician functioning focus on burnout and use measures that identify burnout. To get a more comprehensive understanding of how someone is doing, assessing parameters other than burnout is necessary. A group of investigators that has contributed significantly to the burnout …

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Career Regret – Why Did I Go Into Medicine?

The missing piece of the burnout puzzle may be career regret. Much is written about emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and as previously discussed, the scales potentially miss the third aspect of burnout -- a decreased sense of personal accomplishment. After all, one can recover from …

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Binge Drinking in Medical School…Really?

Over 1/3rd if medical students binge drank in the past two weeks, according to a study by Ayala, et al. who were using the definition of consuming five or more drinks in one sitting. Binge drinking in medical school is a noted issue that needs to be addressed. Check out our interesting case …

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Medical Student Alcohol Use Higher Than Peers

Is alcohol your solution for stress management? Stress, burnout, and alcohol use in medical school are common. In fact, alcohol use is more common than you might expect. Is there a connection? That is, does burnout cause excessive alcohol use and/or does alcohol use cause burnout? Fill out …

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