Abstract

Psychological distress and chronic exposure to high levels of stress during medical school can result in a “burnout syndrome” with the potential for multiple detrimental consequences. Burnout syndrome develops as the sequence of emotional exhaustion, followed by depersonalization as a coping mechanism, and which finally manifests itself as feelings of professional dissatisfaction and anguish. If burnout continues into residency and later into medical practice, it will affect the physician’s functioning and quality of life. Interventions targeting unsuccessful coping strategies and complications related to burnout, may offer an opportunity to improve medical student well-being and mental health.

In the field of medicine, physicians and residents have been the focus of research on burnout, but little investigation has been done on medical students. This research project is being conducted to assess the prevalence of burnout among third year medical students at Howard University College of Medicine, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) hospital system. This study is being conducted for the benefit and well-being of students; we hope it will better enable us to devise effective interventions to address and prevent burnout in the future studies, which will result in positive outcomes for our future resident physicians.