What Are the Characteristics of Fourth-Year Medical Students With Higher Levels of Resilience?

Sey Park; Maribeth Porter; Ki Park; Lauren Bielick; Benjamin J Rooks; Arch G Mainous 3rd; Susmita Datta; Peter J Carek

doi:10.22454/PRiMER.2019.150381

What Are the Characteristics of Fourth-Year Medical Students With Higher Levels of Resilience?

PRiMER. 2019 Oct 4:3:22. doi: 10.22454/PRiMER.2019.150381. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Sey Park¹, Maribeth Porter¹, Ki Park², Lauren Bielick¹, Benjamin J Rooks¹, Arch G Mainous 3rd³, Susmita Datta², Peter J Carek¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Community Health and Family Medicine, College of Medicine University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
² Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
³ Department of Health Services Research, Management and Policy, University of Florida | and Department of Community Health and Family Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.

Abstract

Introduction: Burnout during medical training, including medical school, has gained attention in recent years. Resiliency may be an important characteristic for medical students to have or obtain. The aim of this study was to examine the level of resiliency in fourth-year medical students and whether certain characteristics were associated with students who have higher levels of resiliency.

Methods: Subjects were fourth-year medical students who completed a survey during a required end-of-year rotation. The survey collected subjects' demographic information including age, gender, race, ethnicity, marital status, and chosen specialty. They were also asked to complete the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) and answer questions that assessed personal characteristics.

Results: The response rate was 92.4%. Most respondents had personal time for themselves after school (92.6%), exercise or participate in physical activity for at least 30 minutes most days of the week (67.2%), were able to stop thinking about medical school after leaving for the day (58.2%), and had current financial stress (51.6%). No differences were noted in demographic information among students across specialty categories. A higher BRS score was associated with being male and having the ability to stop thinking about school.

Conclusions: BRS scores in medical students are associated with specific demographic characteristics and the ability to stop thinking about school. Addressing the modifiable activities may assist students with increasing their resiliency and potentially decreasing their risk of burnout.