title: [Burdened into the job -- final-year students' empathy and burnout].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Empathy is a central element in daily patient care. The burnout syndrome seems to be a potential factor influencing physicians' empathic behavior negatively. In Germany up to 20 % of practicing physicians experience burnout. So far, there have been no studies measuring empathy and the degree of burnout among final-year medical students in Germany. The aim of the current study was to investigate final-year students' self-reported empathy, burnout and the association of job satisfaction and occupational self-efficacy with regard to potential gender differences.
  
  
  METHODS
  127 medical students at the end of their final year (82 f, 45 m; 26.8 years of age) were surveyed using the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE), the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and items addressing job satisfaction and occupational self-efficacy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean JSPE score of all final-year students was 113.25 ± 10.21 (20=lowest possible empathy score, 140=highest possible empathy score). Based on the three dimensions of burnout, the students fell in the moderate burnout category in all subscales of the MBI. There was an association between a lower empathy score and a higher burnout score. Also, the MBI correlated negatively with final-year students' job satisfaction and occupational self-efficacy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite high self-rated empathy scores, the experience of burnout symptoms in medical students may begin as early as their final year of studies, where higher levels of burnout are associated with lower self-rated empathy scores. The number of final-year medical students affected by clinically significant burnout (up to 20 %) was just as high as among practicing physicians. Female students were found to be particularly affected. Given the rising numbers of female graduates, this shows that urgent action is required.
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Allgemeine Innere Medizin und Psychosomatik, Universität Heidelberg.
authors.forename: Nadja
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Koehl-Hackert
authors.forename: Jobst-Hendrik
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Schultz
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nikendei
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Möltner
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gedrose
authors.forename: Hendrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: van den Bussche
authors.forename: Jana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jünger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000523:psychology*; D002982:Clinical Clerkship; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011594:Psychometrics; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012737:Sex Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*