Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Mar 3:12:28.
doi: 10.12688/mep.19094.2. eCollection 2022.

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

Margot Kelly-Hedrick  1 , Kayla Iuliano  2 , Sean Tackett  3 , Margaret S Chisolm  3   4
Affiliations

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

Margot Kelly-Hedrick et al. MedEdPublish (2016). .

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.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No competing interests were disclosed.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Rothenberger DA: Physician burnout and well-being: A systematic review and framework for action. Dis Colon Rectum. 2017;60(6):567–576. 10.1097/DCR.0000000000000844 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Frajerman A, Morvan Y, Krebs MO, et al. : Burnout in medical students before residency: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur Psychiatry. 2019;55:36–42. 10.1016/j.eurpsy.2018.08.006 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bynum WE, 4th, Varpio L, Teunissen P: Why impaired wellness may be inevitable in medicine, and why that may not be a bad thing. Med Educ. 2021;55(1):16–22. 10.1111/medu.14284 - DOI - PubMed
    1. VanderWeele TJ: On the promotion of human flourishing. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017;114(31):8148–56. 10.1073/pnas.1702996114 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. VanderWeele TJ, McNeely E, Koh HK: Reimagining Health-Flourishing. JAMA. 2019;321(17):1667–1668. 10.1001/jama.2019.3035 - DOI - PubMed