Burnout en estudiantes del Plan de Estudios Combinados en Medicina, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Introduction. Combined Studies in Medicine is a program in which outstanding students pursue a career in Medicine and simultaneously a doctorate. The requirements to complete the graduate course involve stress situations that could lead to burnout. Burnout is a syndrome with three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, cynicism and inefficiency, which can diminish the expectations of success, satisfaction and academic performance. Aim. To determine the frequency of burnout and its dimensions in students of six generations of the program as well as its correlation with habits, sociodemographic and academic characteristics. Subjects and methods. Students voluntarily answered a self-applied questionnaire and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey. The prevalence of the dimensions and burnout were calculated and were correlated with variables evaluated in the questionnaire using the Fisher’s exact test. Results. The 56 participants were negative to burnout and 61% to the dimensions; 27% had inefficiency, 11% cynicism and 7% exhaustion, combined or alone. The prevalence of two dimensions was 5%. Significant differences were found (p < 0.05) for the relationship with colleagues, playing instruments, singing/acting, place of residence and violence on the way to the stay. Conclusions. The absence of burnout in the participants possibly reflects satisfaction and academic commitment. The bad relationship with colleagues and the violence on their way to the stay are frequent in students with exhaustion. It is possible that playing instruments, singing or acting was a response to exhaustion and cynicism, as well as other coping strategies not explored in this study.