Assessment of Burnout Status Among Medical Students of Nepal: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

Abstract Background: Doctors who have been rightly called wounded healers, start experiencing the challenges of this profession right from their student days. Medical students face comparatively higher frequencies of mental morbidities such as depression, anxiety, burnout, and also greater levels of psychological distress. The whole medical curriculum and this field of medicine require immense hard work, sleepless nights, a lot of compassion, and putting in service before self. The students entering medical colleges, who have just taken the first step in this never-ending journey of learning and service begin to experience a lot of challenges and overwhelmed and measurable syllabus, long years of gaining knowledge, and continuous pressure of being up to the mark as it may become a matter of someone’s life or death. Earlier, least discussed as a topic of concern, the mental health of medical professionals is now being talked about, however, enough data is still not available relating to the medical students of Nepal. This study aims to assess burnout among medical students of Nepal. Methods: A quantitative descriptive study was carried out online among Nepali undergraduate medical students with a cross-sectional design. Results: Out of 531 students, 72.32% fell in the burnout category. The prevalence of burnout was 76.35% in the first year, and 45.45% in the final year. 67.01% of total males and 78.75% of total females were identified as burnout. Conclusion: A very high prevalence of burnout was encountered among Nepali undergraduate medical students more commonly in females and first-year students.