Assessing Burnout in Medical Students in Clerkship Years in United Arab Emirates

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Burnout Syndrome is a medical condition caused by long-term job-related strain and is defined by presence of either one or more of the three states i.e. emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and lack of personal accomplishment. Burnout has been shown to cause decreased work output and mental well being of employees and increase errors at workplace. Burnout is observed in various lines of work and but has been found to be especially high among academic students undertaking professional studies as well as healthcare professionals. Medical students in their clerkship years undergo high stake exams, while adapting from classroom and simulation learning to participate in clinical care of patients in hospital care setting with no prior experience, which much them vulnerable to developing burnout during medical school. Burnout can effect medical students' well-being, which may continue into their internship and residency so greater emphasis in required on creating an awareness of burnout and identifying any factors associated to its development.

Detailed Description
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Burnout syndrome can develop after a prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal workplace stressors, and is defined by 3 dimensions - emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and lack of personal accomplishment. Burnout syndrome can be prevalent in up to half the medical students and those studies have suggested poor mental health among them. Various external and internal factors may contribute to burnout in medical students and little is known about the impact and mechanism of these factors in developing burnout. Burnout can develop, persist or worsen in residency years and it has been found to frequent among Diabetes specialty residents in United Kingdom as well in Emirati medical residents. Burnout can affect overall wellbeing of medical students with health consequences as well as poor work engagement/ educational outcomes. To the best of authors knowledge no data exists on burnout in undergraduate medical students in clinical years (clerkship) in United Arab Emirates

Official Title
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Assessing the Frequency of Burnout Syndrome Among Medical Students in United Arab Emirates University and Identifying Any Associated Factors

Conditions
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Burnout, Student, Burnout, Professional, Educational Problems

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: No intervention but assessing for burnout syndrome in all group


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Medical students (5th and 6th year) of college of medicine and health sciences in United Arab Emirates University Currently attending the college, not on sick leave or long-term absence. Agreed to participate after Informed consent Exclusion Criteria: Self-reported presence of active mental health illness or current treatment.

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 40 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Medical Student in the final two clinical years (Clerkship years)<br>All the current medical students of College of Medicine and Health Sciences in United Arab Emirates University in the clinical years (fifth and sixth years in a 6-year MD programme) also called as clerkship years, will be invited into this study to assess for burnout syndrome using a validated tool via Mind GardenTM using Malasch Inventory for Burnout Syndrome and also to identify any other factors which may be contributing to stress/burnout. | Other: No intervention but assessing for burnout syndrome in all group<br>* Using Maslach Burnout inventory to assess the presence of burnout and a self reporting questionnaire to identify possible stressors or associations<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Assess the frequency of burnout syndrome in clerkship medical students (5th and 6th year of MD program) collected over 3 months period. | The purpose of this study is to estimate the frequency of burnout syndrome in medical students in the clinical years (fifth and sixth years in a 6-year MD programme) in College of Medicine and Health Sciences in United Arab Emirates University via validated tool from Mind Garden, Malasch Inventory for Burnout Syndrome, assessing all three subscales of burnout i.e Emotional Exhaustion (with cutoff score for high burnout >26; range 0-54 with higher scores meaning a worse outcome), Depersonalization (with cutoff score for high burnout >12; range 0-30 with higher scores meaning a worse outcome), and lack of personal accomplishment (with cutoff score for high burnout < 32; range 0-48 with higher scores meaning a better outcome) | cross-sectional with data collected over 3 months | 
| Assess factors associated with presence of burnout syndrome in clerkship medical students (5th and 6th year of MD program) collected over 3 months period. | To identify factors associated with presence of burnout in medical students in the clinical years (fifth and sixth years in a 6-year MD programme) in College of Medicine and Health Sciences in United Arab Emirates University | cross-sectional with data collected over 3 months | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Medical Student, Clerkship, Burnout syndrome, Medical Education, Untied Arab Emirates