Prevalence, Effects and Associated Risk Factors of Burnout among Medical Students in Guyana

Objectives: To determine the rate of burnout among medical students of Guyana and to identify the causes and effects of burnout among those medical students affected. Design & Methods: This cross-sectional, quantitative study surveyed 238 medical students from all five medical schools in Guyana. The Burnout Inventory Student Survey (MBI-SS) score was used to determine the risk of burnout among the surveyed students. A piloted, online, de novo questionnaire was used to evaluate the variables recorded on the questionnaire including age, gender, year of study, employment status, causes, effects of burnout inter alia. All quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS v. 26.0 with the chi square and independent samples t-test being used to assess the association between variables. (p=0.05). Results: Data on 238 medical students were analysed (F=152, M=86), 51.3% of surveyed medical students showed signs of high burnout. (M=48.3%, F=61.8%, p<0.000, OR=3.4). While there was no significant difference between burnout rates of students in the 1st and 5th years (p=0.07), the 5th years were 3.7 times more at risk for burnout than their first years. Majority of the respondents attributed the cause of burnout to ‘poorly designed curriculum’ and ‘high tuition fees.’ Consequently, 36.1% of the respondents have ‘thoughts of suicide’, 25.4% engage in ‘safe/unsafe sexual gratifications’, and others use alcohol/ ‘hard’ drugs to cope with burnout. Conclusions: Medical students are at a high risk of burnout. Medical schools need to design programmes to address the mental health of its populace and reduce the prevalence and effects of burnout.