Emotional intelligence, burnout, and professional fulfillment in clinical year medical students

Abstract

Background

Emotional intelligence (EI) has been associated with decreased burnout in surgical residents but has not been extensively studied in medical students. We hypothesized that higher EI would lead to decreased levels of burnout among medical students at a US medical school.

Methods

The authors administered three separate EI measures and compiled an EI score by adding the normalized score on each test. These measures were the DRS-15, the Grit Scale, and the Reading the Mind Between the Eyes Quiz. The Professional Fulfillment Index (PFI) was used to determine levels of burnout experienced two weeks before survey completion.

Results

The population included 68 medical students. PFI and EI scores were positively correlated (R = 0.55, p < .001). The separate EI measures indicated that both Grit (R = 0.43, p < .001) and DRS-15 (R = 0.56, p < .001) were correlated with PFI. The Eyes Quiz did not show a significant correlation with PFI (p = .2).

Conclusions

The results confirmed our hypothesis that EI would be correlated with decreased levels of burnout among this group of students. Some areas of potential future study include whether these same results hold true at other medical schools and if improving EI has a benefit of decreasing burnout.

Keywords:

• Medical education research
• selection
• student support
• undergraduate

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Glossary

Professional Fulfillment Index (PFI): An instrument that assesses both burnout (work exhaustion and interpersonal disengagement) and professional fulfillment. The PFI assesses burnout and professional fulfillment over the previous 2 weeks, facilitating assessment of recent well-being levels and effects of both short- and longer-term interventions.

Trockel M, Bohman B, Lesure E, Hamidi MS, Welle D, Roberts L, Shanafelt T. 2018. A Brief Instrument to Assess Both Burnout and Professional Fulfillment in Physicians: Reliability and Validity, Including Correlation with Self-Reported Medical Errors, in a Sample of Resident and Practicing Physicians. Acad Psychiatry. 42(1):11–24.

Burnout: A psychological syndrome consisting of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreased personal accomplishment.

Maslach C, Leiter MP. 2016. Understanding the burnout experience: recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry. 15(2):103–111.

Emotional Intelligence: A combination of perceiving and understanding emotions, using emotions to formulate thoughts, and managing emotions in a way that they positively impact a person’s life.

Mayer JD, Salovey P, Caruso DR, Sitarenios G. 2001. Emotional intelligence as a standard intelligence. Emotion. 1(3):232–242.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cody Blanchard

Cody Blanchard, BS, is a third-year medical student at Mercer University School of Medicine. His research interests include assessments in medical education and burnout and well-being in the medical community.

Victoria Kravets

Victoria Kravets, BS, is a doctoral student at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department. Her research interests involve human health in space, specifically the effects of altered gravity on vestibular function.

Mara Schenker

Dr. Mara Schenker, MD, FACS, is an Associate Professor and Director of Orthopedic Trauma Research at Emory University School of Medicine. Her research interests include assessing and mitigating risk factors (medical/social) for poor outcomes and increased health care utilization in orthopedic trauma.

Thomas Moore

Dr. Thomas Moore Jr., MD, is an Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Emory University and a practicing Orthopedic Trauma Surgeon at Grady Memorial Hospital. He is an Associate Program Director of the Emory Orthopedic Surgery Residency and the Program Director for the Emory at Grady Orthopedic Trauma Fellowship.