Medical student flourishing before and during the COVID-19 pandemic at one U.S. institution

Margot Kelly-Hedrick; Kayla Iuliano; Sean Tackett; Margaret S Chisolm

doi:10.12688/mep.19094.2

Medical student flourishing before and during the COVID-19 pandemic at one U.S. institution

MedEdPublish (2016). 2023 Mar 3:12:28. doi: 10.12688/mep.19094.2. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Margot Kelly-Hedrick¹, Kayla Iuliano², Sean Tackett³, Margaret S Chisolm^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.
² Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
³ Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁴ Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Abstract

Introduction: Medical education research often focuses on measuring negative mental states like burnout, rather than focusing on positive states like well-being. Flourishing - a state that includes domains of happiness and mental health - is a way of thinking about well-being that may be relevant to education and research. The purpose of this prospective, observational study was to compare the relationship among flourishing, other well-being measures, and burnout in medical students via a survey administered at two time points. Methods: We surveyed medical students at one U.S. institution about their flourishing, satisfaction with work-life balance, quality of life, empathic concern, and burnout (emotional exhaustion and depersonalization) before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Flourishing was measured using two scores, the Flourish Index (FI) and Secure Flourish Index (SFI), with higher scores indicating greater flourishing. Pre- and post-scores for both measures were compared. Results: 107/585 (18%) medical students responded to the survey and 78/107 (73%) participated in the post survey. At the first time point, respondents reported both a mean FI and SFI 6.7 (SD=1.3); higher levels of flourishing correlated with higher satisfaction with work-life balance (p<.001), higher quality of life (p<.001), and lower levels of burnout (emotional exhaustion p<.001; depersonalization p=.021). SFI scores were higher at the second time point (M=7.1, SD=1.2) than the first (M=6.7, SD=1.3, p=.026). FI, satisfaction with work-life balance, quality of life, empathic concern, and burnout were unchanged at the second time point. Discussion: Like past findings in medical residents, we found medical students' flourishing-as measured by FI and SFI scores-correlated with greater satisfaction with work-life balance, higher quality of life, and lower burnout. In this limited sample, we found flourishing remained largely unchanged after the COVID-19 pandemic onset.

Keywords: COVID-19; burnout; coronavirus-19; empathy; flourishing; quality of life; undergraduate medical education.

Grants and funding

T32 CA134286/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States