Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Projects and researches
Published: 2021-06-19

Burnout, empathy and well-being in medical and psychology students

University of Bucharest, Department of Psychology
Titu Maiorescu University, Faculty of Dentistry
burnout empathy well-being mediacl and psychology students

Abstract

The present study aims to analyze the relationships between burnout, empathy and the well-being of medical and psychology students, as well as the differences in these variables depending on their specialization. The study was attended by 270 students, 94 males (35%) and 176 females (65%), aged between 18 and 48 years, M = 20.84, SD =3.26. Regarding the specialization, 83 are enrolled at the Faculty of Dentistry Titu Maiorescu (31%), 73 are enrolled at the Faculty of General Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila (27%), and 114 are enrolled at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest (42%). Burnout was measured with the Academic Burnout Scale (Zhang, Shi, Yun, Li, Wang, He, & Miao, 2015), empathy was measured with the Jefferson Scale of Empathy, JSE (Hojat, Maxwell, Carroll, & Cass, 2016), and well-being was measured with The Satisfaction with Life Scale, SWLS (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). The results showed that medical students have higher levels of burnout than psychology students and lower levels of empathy and well-being. Empathy also moderates the relationship between burnout and well- being. These results can be used to develop intervention programs to reduce burnout and increase students' empathy in order to increase well-being.

References

  1. Ahola, K., Hakanen, J. (2007). Job strain,burnout,and depressive symptoms: A prospective study among dentists. Journal of affective disorders, 104(1), 103-110. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2007.03.004
  2. Asken, M. J., Raham, D. C. (1983) Resident performance and sleep deprivation: a review. J Med Educ, 58, 382-388. doi: 10.1097/00001888-198305000-00003.
  3. Baron-Cohen, S. (2001). Theory of mind in normal development and autism. Prisme, 34, 174–183.
  4. Baron-Cohen, S., & Wheelwright, S. (2004). The empathy quotient: An investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high functioning autism, and normal sex differences.,Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34, 163– 175. doi:10.1023/B:JADD.0000022607.19833.00
  5. Batson, C. D. (1991). The altruism question: Toward a social psychological answer. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  6. Brent, R. L, Brent, L. H. (1978) Medicine an excuse from living. Res Staff Physician, 24, 61-65.
  7. Byrne, B. M. (1994). Burnout: testing for the validity, replication, and invariance of causal structure across elementary, intermediate, and secondary teachers. American Educational Research Journal, 645–673. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.2307/1163231
  8. Cho, E., Jeon, S. (2019). The role of empathy and psychological need satisfaction in pharmacy students’ burnout and well-being. BMC Medical Education, 19:43–54. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1477-2
  9. Davis, M. H. (1983). Measuring individual differences in empathy: evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(1), 113−126. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.44.1.113
  10. Del Canale, S., Louis, D. Z., Maio, V., Wang, X.,Rossi, G., Hojat, M., Gonnella, J. S. (2012). The relationship between physician empathy and disease complications: An empirical study of primary care physicians and their diabetic patients in Parma. Academic Medicine, 87, 1243–1249. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0b013e3182628fbf.
  11. Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Nachreiner, F., Schaufeli, W. B. (2000). A model of burnout and life satisfaction amongst nurses. J Adv Nurs, 32(2), 454–64.http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2000.01496.x
  12. Diener, E., Emmons, R. A, Larsen, R. J., Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. J Pers Assess, 49, 71–5. doi: 10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13
  13. Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The Satisfaction With Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment,49(1), 71–75. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13
  14. Duarte, J., Pinto-Gouveia, J. (2017). Empathy and feelings of guilt experienced by nurses: a cross-sectional study of their role in burnout and compassion fatigue symptoms. Appl Nurs Res., 35, 42–7. doi: 10.1016/j.apnr.2017.02.006
  15. Dyrbye, L., Shanafelt, T. D., Sinsky, C. A., Cipriano, P., Bhatt, J., Ommaya, A., . . . Meyers, D. (2017). Burnout Among Health Care Professionals: A Call to Explore and Address This Underrecognized Threat to Safe, High-Quality Care. NAM Perspectives. https://doi.org/10.31478/201707b.
  16. Ekman, P., Friesen, W. (2003). Unmasking the face. Cambridge, MA: Malor Books.
  17. Ford, M. E. (1982). Social cognition and social competence in adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 18, 323–340. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0012-1649.18.3.323
  18. Hakanen, J. J., Schaufeli, W. B. (2012). Do burnout and work engagement predict depressive symptoms and life satisfaction? A three-wave seven-year prospective study. J Affect Disord., 141, 415–24. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2012.02.043
  19. Hayes, B., Prihodova, L., Walsh, G., & Frank Doyle, S. D. (2017). What’s up doc? A national cross-sectional study of psychological wellbeing of hospital doctors in Ireland. BMJ Open. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-018023
  20. Hojat, M., Vergare, M., Isenberg, G, Cohen, M, Spandorfer,J. (2015). Underlying construct of empathy, optimism, and burnout in medical students. Int J Med Educ., 6, 12–6. doi: 10.5116/ijme.54c3.60cd.
  21. Hojat, M. (2016). The Jefferson Scale of Empathy. In M. Hojat, Empathy in Health Professions Education and Patient Care (pp. 83-128), New York: Springer International.
  22. Hojat, M., Maxwell, K., Carroll, S., Cass, J. (2016). Jefferson Scale of Empathy. User Guide. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA: Thomas Jefferson University.
  23. IBM Corp. Released 2016. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 24.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.
  24. Jolly, A. (1991). Conscious chimpanzees? A review of recent literature. In C. Ristau (Ed.), Cognitive ethology: The minds of other animals (pp. 231 -252). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  25. Keyes, C. L., Shmotkin, D., & Ryff, C. D. (2002). Optimizing Well-Being: The Empirical Encounter of Two Traditions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 1007- 1022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.82
  26. Kumar, S. (2016). Burnout and doctors: prevalence, prevention and intervention. Healthcare, 4(3), 37. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare40
  27. Lee, Y. Y., Medford, A., & Halim, A. (2015). Burnout in physicians. J R Coll Physicians Edinb, 45(2), 104-107. doi: 10.4997/JRCPE.2015.203
  28. Lin, D. T., Liebert, C. A., Tran, J., Lau, J. N., Salles, A. (2016) Emotional Intelligence as a Predictor of Resident Well- Being. J Am Coll Surg, 223, 352-358. doi: 10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2016.04.044
  29. Lucchetti, G., Damiano, R. F., DiLalla, L. F., Lucchetti, A. L. G., Moutinho, I. L. D., Ezequiel, O. D. S., et al. (2018). Cross- cultural differences in mental health, quality of life, empathy, and burnout between US and Brazilian medical students. Acad Psychiatry, 42, 62–7. doi: 10.1007/s40596-017-0777-2
  30. Maslach, C. (1982). Burnout: The cost of caring. New York: Prentice Hall.
  31. Maslach, C., & Jackson, S. (1986). Maslach burnout inventory. Palo Alto, CA, United States: Consulting Psychologists Press.
  32. Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2016). Understanding the burnout experience: recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry, 15, 103-111. doi: 10.1002/wps.20311
  33. Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W. B., & Leiter, M. (2001). Job Burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 397-422. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397
  34. Melchers, M. C., Li, M., Haas, B. W., Reuter, M., Bischoff, L., Montag, C. (2016). Similar Personality Patterns Are Associated with Empathy in Four Different Countries. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 290. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00290
  35. Michels, P., Probst, J., Godenick, M. T., & Palesch, Y. (2003). Anxiety and anger among family practice residents:a South Carolina family practice research consortium study. Academic Medicine, 78(1), 69–79. doi: 10.1097/00001888-
  36. -00013
  37. Mikulincer, M., Shaver, P. R., Gillath, O., & Nitzberg, R. A. (2005). Attachment, caregiving, and altruism: Boosting attachment security increases compassion and helping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,89(5), 817- 839. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.89.5.817. 817
  38. Mitchell, R. E., Matthews, J. R., Grandy, T. G., Lupo, J. V. (1983) The question of stress among first-year medical students. J Med Educ, 58, 367-372. doi: 10.1097/00001888- 198305000-00001
  39. Mushin, I. C., Matteson, M. T., Lynch, E. C. (1993). Developing a resident assistance program. Beyond the support group model. Arch Intern Med, 153, 729-733. DOI: 10.1001/archinte.1993.00410060039007
  40. Paro, H. B. M. S., Silveira, P. S. P., Perotta, B., Gannam, S., Enns, S. C., Giaxa, R. R. B. (2017). Empathy among medical students: is there a relation with quality of life and burnout? PLoS One, 9(4), e94133.
  41. Pensec, L., Selic, P. (2018). Empathy and burnout in Slovenian family medicine doctors: the first presentation of Jefferson scale of empathy results. Zdr Varst., 57(3), 155– 65. doi: 10.2478/sjph-2018-0020.
  42. Ryan, R. M., Deci, E. L. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology , 141–166. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.141
  43. Ryff, C. D., Singer, B. (1996). Psychological Well-Being: Meaning, Measurement, and Implications for Psychotherapy Research. Sychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 65, 14-23. doi: 10.1159/000289026
  44. Ryff, C. D., Singer, B. (1998). The contours of positive human health. Psychological Inquiry, 9, 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli0901_1
  45. Schaufeli, W. B., Maslach, C. (1993). Historical and Conceptual Development of Burnout. Retreived at 12.01.2021, at
  46. https://www.wilmarschaufeli.nl/publications/Schaufeli/043.pdf
  47. Shapiro, J. (2008). Walking a mile in their patients’ shoes: empathy and othering in medical students’ education. Philos Ethics Humanit Med., 3, 10–20. doi: 10.1186/1747-5341-3- 10
  48. Shirom, A. (1989). Burnout in work organizations. International review of industrial and organizational psychology, 25-48.
  49. Siegel, D. J. (2012). The developing mind: How relationships and the brain interact to shape who we are. New York: Guilford Press.
  50. Silver, J., Caleshu, C., Casson-Parkin, S., Ormond, K. (2018). Mindfulness among genetic counselors is associated with increased empathy and work engagement and decreased burnout and compassion fatigue. J Genet Couns., 27, 1175–86. doi: 10.1007/s10897-018-0236-6
  51. Vine, I. (1992). Altruism and human nature: Resolving the evolutionary paradox. In P. M. Oliner, S. P. Oliner, L. Baron,
  52. L. A. Blum, D. L. Krebs, & M. Z. Smolenska (Eds.), Embracing the other: Philosophical, psychological, and historical perspectives on altruism (pp. 73-103). New York: New York University Press.
  53. Vlachou, E. M., Damigos, D., Lyrakos, G., Chanopoulos, K., Kosmidis, G., & Karavis, M. (2016). The Relationship between Burnout Syndrome and Emotional Intelligence in Healthcare Professionals. Health Science Journal, 1-9.
  54. Von Harscher, H., Desmarais, N., Dollinger, R., Grossman, S., & Aldana, S. (2017). The impact of empathy on burnout in medical students: new findings. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 23(3), 295–303. doi:10.1080/13548506.2017.1374545
  55. Wang, Q, Wang, L, Shi, M, Li X, Liu, R, Zhu, M, Wu, H. (2019). Empathy, burnout, life satisfaction, correlations and associated sociodemographic factors among Chinese undergraduate medical students: an exploratory cross- sectional study. BMC Medical Education, 19, 341.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1788-3
  56. Wheelwright, S., Baron-Cohen, S. (2011). Systemizing and Empathizing. In D. A. Fein (Ed.), The neuropsychology of autism (pp. 317-339). New York: Oxford University Press. Whiten, A. (Ed.). (1991). Natural theories of mind: Evolution, development and simulation of everyday mindreading. Oxford, England: Blackwell.
  57. Williams, C. A.(1989). Empathy and burnout in male and female helping professions. Research in Nursing and Health, 12, 169-178. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1002/nur.4770120307
  58. Yuguero, O., Melnick, E. R., Marsal, J. R., Esquerda, M., Soler-Gonzalez, J. (2018). Crosssectional study of the association between healthcare professionals’ empathy and burnout and the number of annual primary care visits per patient under their care in Spain. BMJ Open, 8, :e020949. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-020949
  59. Zaré, S., Galanko, J., Behrns, K. E., Koruda, M. J., Boyle, L. M., Farley, D., Farrell, T. M. (2004). Psychological Well-
  60. Being of Surgery Residents Before the 80-Hour Work Week: A Multiinstitutional Study. Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 198(4), 633-640.
  61. Zhang, S., Shi, R., Yun, L., Li, X., Wang, Y., He, H., & Miao, D. (2015). Self-regulation and study-related health outcomes: A structural equation model of regulatory mode orientations, academic burnout and engagement among university students. Social Indicators Research, 123(2), 585-599. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1007/s11205-014- 0742-3

How to Cite

Chiracu, A., & Dumitru, A. D. I. (2021). Burnout, empathy and well-being in medical and psychology students. Studia Doctoralia, 12(1), 71–82. https://doi.org/10.47040/sd/sdpsych.v12i1.124