title: Linking medical faculty stress/burnout to willingness to implement medical school curriculum change: a preliminary investigation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Balancing administrative demands from the medical school while providing patient support and seeking academic advancement can cause personal hardship that ranges from high stress to clinically recognizable conditions such as burnout. Regarding the importance of clinical faculties' burnout and its effects on different aspects of their professional career, this study was conducted and aimed to evaluate the relationship between willingness to change teaching approaches as characterized by a modified stage-of-change model and measures of stress and burnout.
  
  
  METHODS
  This descriptive analytic study was conducted on 143 clinical faculty members of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran. Participants were asked to complete three questionnaires: a modified stages of change questionnaire the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the General Health Questionnaire. Data were analysed by SPSS: 16 using non-parametric statistical tests such as multiple regression and ICC (intra-class coefficient) and Spearman correlation coefficient test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A significant relationship was found between faculty members' readiness to change teaching approaches and the subscales of occupational burnout. Specifically, participants with low occupational burnout were more likely to be in the action stage, while those with high burnout were in the attitude or intention stage, which could be understood as not being ready to implement change. There was no significant correlation between general health scores and stage of change.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found it feasible to measure stages of change as well as stress/burnout in academic doctors. Occupational burnout directly reduces the readiness to change. To have successful academic reform in medical schools, it therefore would be beneficial to assess and manage occupational burnout among clinical faculty members.
authors.affiliation: EDO, Faculty of Dentistry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Zeinab
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Arvandi
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Amirhossein
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Emami
authors.affiliation: PhD Candidate in Medical Education, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran.|Faculty Member of EDC (Education Development Center), Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Nazila
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zarghi
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyed Mohammad
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Alavinia
authors.affiliation: EDC, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran.|Clinical Science and Education, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Mandana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shirazi
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry, Toronto University, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Sagar V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Parikh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003479:Curriculum; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012577:Schools, Medical; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000517:prevention & control*
keywords: Medical education; burnout; curriculum reform; medicine; stages of change; stress