Emotional intelligence and burnout in medical students

Introduction

Medical students have a high prevalence of Academic Burnout Syndrome (ABS); however, few studies have analyzed the protective factors of this syndrome in this population.

Objective

To determine the association of emotional intelligence (EI) with ABS in medical students.

Methods

A cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational study was conducted on medical students using Google Forms to respond to the Trait Meta-Mood Scale, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory–General Survey for Students to determine EI and ABS, respectively.

Results

Between 36% and 50% of students have insufficient attention, clarity, and emotional repair. Furthermore, 13% of students were diagnosed with ABS. It was found an association between subscales of EI and the ABS. It was observed that women got lower punctuation on EI and showed a higher prevalence of ABS.

Conclusions

In this population, the students with higher abilities of EI showed the lowest symptomatology of ABS, it is necessary to include training in the progress of abilities of EI inside of study programs.