Medical Student Burnout as Impacted by Trait Emotional Intelligence - Moderated by Three-Year and Four-Year Medical Degree Programs and Gender

INTRODUCTIONMedical student burnout has received increasing attention in recent years due to greater acceptance of psychological and emotional vulnerability in the health care profession. Given the significant investment of personal and financial resources in this demanding profession, continued evaluation of factors contributing to burnout in medical training is necessary. A midwestern medical college with a longstanding 4-year medical degree program created 2 regional campuses that utilize a calendar-efficient 3-year medical degree program. The objective in this study is to examine if medical student burnout scores are higher for students on the 3-year campuses and how that is affected by emotional intelligence. METHODSFirst- and second-year medical students voluntarily completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory for Students (scale: 1 = never, 7 = every day) and the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (scale: 1 = completely disagree, 7 = completely agree). Multifactor analysis of variance assessed mean differences in burnout between campus and gender. Multivariate linear regressions were used for predicting burnout from emotional intelligence. RESULTSThree-year campus students reported significantly (P