{"id":35372,"date":"2020-01-10T11:45:36","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T16:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=35372"},"modified":"2021-05-20T20:40:57","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T00:40:57","slug":"osteopathic-medical-students-show-low-rates-of-burnout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/osteopathic-medical-students-show-low-rates-of-burnout\/","title":{"rendered":"Osteopathic Medical Students Show Low Rates of Burnout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With medical school comes notoriously long, stressful, work-filled days. Yet, students studying osteopathic medicine show surprisingly low rates of burnout, a new study<\/a> finds.  
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Burnout, a state of mental and physical exhaustion caused by prolonged exposure to stressful work, is a problem in many fields but is particularly high among those in medicine. Until this point, however, minimal research has assessed burnout in specifically those studying to become doctors of osteopathic medicine.
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Doctors of osteopathic medicine (DOs) and the more traditional doctors of medicine (MDs) are alike in the sense that they both are similarly educated and licensed to practice in the United States. Where they differ is in their philosophical approach to patient care. 
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\u201cThe osteopathic philosophy involves treating the mind, the body and the spirit. It\u2019s a more holistic approach,\u201d said<\/a> Michael Jonesco, assistant clinical professor of internal medicine and sports medicine at Ohio State University\u2019s Wexner Medical Center. \u201cFor the patient, the osteopathic approach is less about prescribing medications and medical procedures and more on the body trying to heal itself.\u201d
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Only 2.3 percent of the 385 osteopathic medical students surveyed reported high levels of emotional exhaustion and 17.4 reported high levels of depersonalization — two of the three key dimensions of burnout.  
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According to lead author Elizabeth Beverly<\/a>, these are positive results. \u201cEmotional exhaustion was very low. Depersonalization was also really low,\u201d explained Beverly, an associate professor in family medicine at Ohio University\u2019s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. 
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However, when it came to the third dimension of burnout — sense of personal achievement — the results weren\u2019t as impressive. An overwhelming 80.5 percent of students reported feeling like they haven\u2019t personally achieved much.
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Although that may sound bad, Beverly said it seems perfectly natural. \u201cThat\u2019s how I felt when I was in graduate school,\u201d she added.
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Each year of medical school, Beverly explained, comes with its own unique challenges, stressors and uncertainties, which can contribute to students feeling like they\u2019re underachieving.
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In their first year, students have to come to terms with the overwhelming amount of material they have to learn. They\u2019re allowed to shadow physicians, but they\u2019re unable to perform any procedures. In their second year, they have to start studying for the medical board exams. In their third year, students begin clinical rotations. And in their fourth year, they are focused on graduating and being matched with a residency program. 
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Throughout medical school, students have all of these unanswered questions in terms of whether they\u2019re accomplishing everything they need to accomplish, Beverly explained. And they won\u2019t really find out until the very end. 
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Additionally, medical students often have trouble coming to terms academically, which can diminish their sense of personal achievement. 
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Entering medical school, most students are used to receiving test scores in the upper 90s, Beverly explained. So it can be very discouraging to get to medical school and receive a grade in the B or C range.
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“That 80 percent feel a low sense of achievement is a bit ironic, considering that these are all high-performing individuals,” Beverly said in a news release<\/a>. “However, it also makes sense in that they have gone from an environment where they were standouts to one where they are now on an equal academic playing field.”
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So, a key strategy to coping with burnout, Bevelry explained, is positive reframing. 
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\u201cWhat we need to teach the students is, it\u2019s not that you got a C on this exam,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s that you know 72.5 percent of this information. And that\u2019s a lot of information. That\u2019s an achievement.\u201d
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It is, however, important to be upfront with students, Beverly said. 
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\u201cI think it’s important to know that burnout exists,\u201d she added. \u201cAnd I think that students who are interested in pursuing medicine need to be aware that burnout is out there. But going into any profession, there is a risk for burnout.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Beverly is also confident that rates of burnout won\u2019t discourage students from applying to medical school, which is important given an expected shortage of up to nearly 122,000 doctors in the United States by 2032, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With medical school comes notoriously long, stressful, work-filled days. Yet, students studying osteopathic medicine show surprisingly low rates of burnout, a new study finds.   Burnout, a state of mental and physical exhaustion caused by prolonged exposure to stressful work, is a problem in many fields but is particularly high among those in medicine. Until this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":35386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[661,688,645,6,396,230,229],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ace-college","category-discourse-ace-college","category-discourse","category-student-advocacy","category-ohio-university-main-campus","category-news","category-lead-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/bookpalm-1.jpg",830,533,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/bookpalm-1-224x144.jpg",224,144,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/bookpalm-1-300x193.jpg",300,193,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/bookpalm-1.jpg",830,533,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/bookpalm-1.jpg",830,533,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/bookpalm-1.jpg",830,533,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/bookpalm-1.jpg",830,533,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Jackson Schroeder","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/author\/jackson-schroeder\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"With medical school comes notoriously long, stressful, work-filled days. Yet, students studying osteopathic medicine show surprisingly low rates of burnout, a new study finds.   Burnout, a state of mental and physical exhaustion caused by prolonged exposure to stressful work, is a problem in many fields but is particularly high among those in medicine. Until this…","featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/bookpalm-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}