Evaluating trends in burnout among American medical students: A decade of distributing the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory for Medical Students (OLBI-MS)

Abstract

Burnout among physicians is a growing concern, particularly during recent years in the setting of the Covid-19 pandemic. Recently, greater attention has been paid to researching physician burnout and its downstream effects (i.e. depression, suicidality); however, a majority of this research has focused on resident and attending physician populations. Medical students are a similarly vulnerable population, but the literature on medical student burnout is limited. Specifically, there is no existing literature that evaluates the trend of medical student burnout over recent years, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic—a time when students navigated challenges related to their clinical experiences and virtual coursework. The aim of this study is to better understand the prevalence of feelings of burnout among American medical students, and evaluate the trend since the mid-2010s. Further, this study aims to compare average burnout scores among 2nd and 4th year medical students, to analyze the relationship between academic year and feelings of exhaustion and disengagement. We analyzed national data collected from the American Association of Medical Colleges’ Year Two and Graduation Questionnaire, each of which includes an Oldenburg Burnout Inventory for Medical Students. We found that since 2014, levels of reported exhaustion have significantly increased among medical students. We also found that between 2nd and 4th year students, the 4th year students have consistently reported lower levels of burnout than their 2nd year counterparts over time. Finally, we also found that burnout scores peaked among 2nd year medical students at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, and have since trended down. These findings provide an essential understanding of burnout trends among American medical students, and can be utilized to help medical educators plan the timing and objectives of wellness interventions.