Burnout, empathy and well-being in medical 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.