A national longitudinal cohort study of factors contributing to UK medical students’ mental ill-health symptoms

Background The mental health of current medical students is predictive of their mental health as future doctors. The prevalence of anxiety, depression and burnout is high among medical students, but less is known about the occurrence of other mental ill-health symptoms, such as eating or personality disorders, and factors contributing to mental ill-health. Aims (1) To explore the prevalence of various mental ill-health symptoms in medical students and (2) to investigate what medical school factors and students’ attitudes contribute to these mental ill-health symptoms. Methods Between November 2020 and May 2021, medical students from nine geographically spread medical schools in the UK participated by completing online questionnaires at two points in time, approximately 3 months apart. Results Of the 792 participants who filled in the questionnaire at baseline, over half experienced medium to high somatic symptoms (50.8%; 402) and drank alcohol at hazardous levels (62.4%; 494). Adjusted longitudinal data analysis of 407 students who completed the follow-up questionnaire demonstrated that less supportive educational climates that were more competitive and less centralised around the students, lower feelings of belongingness, greater stigma towards mental ill-health and lower intentions to seek help for mental ill-health, all contributed to students’ mental ill-health symptoms. Conclusions Medical students experience a high prevalence of various mental ill-health symptoms. This study suggests that medical school factors and students’ attitudes towards mental ill-health are significantly associated with students’ mental health

To stay or go? A mixed methods study of psychiatry trainees’ intentions to leave training

This mixed methods research study aimed to test a tailored version of the job demands-resources (JD-R) model to uncover what factors contribute to psychiatry trainees’ intentions to leave their training and how. A Web-based survey measured psychiatry trainees’ work conditions, well-being, occupational commitment, and intentions to leave training. The results were analyzed using structural equation modeling featuring validated constructs. Narrative interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis following the tailored JD-R model. Of 159 current London trainees who completed the questionnaire, 22.1% were thinking a lot about leaving training. Trainees with higher job demands, fewer resources, and less ability to detach from their work experienced higher burnout levels. More engaged and less burned-out trainees were more committed to their occupation and less inclined to leave training. The interviews identified that trainees’ decision to leave was not linear and took time to make. Trainees found their work environment challenging and reported reduced well-being and rethinking their career paths. The JD-R model is a useful tool to understand how medical trainees’ job demands and resources need to be balanced to maintain their well-being and, in turn, how this affects their commitment to the occupation and training

Towards healthy learning climates in postgraduate medical education: exploring the role of hospital-wide education committees.

BackgroundPostgraduate medical education prepares residents for delivery of high quality patient care during training as well as for later practice, which makes high quality residency training programs crucial to safeguard patient care. Healthy learning climates contribute to high quality postgraduate medical education. In several countries, modernization of postgraduate medical education has resulted in hospital-wide responsibilities for monitoring learning climates. This study investigates the association between the actions undertaken by hospital-wide education committees and learning climates in postgraduate medical education.MethodsResearch conducted in December 2010 invited 57 chairs of hospital-wide education committees to complete a questionnaire on their implemented level of quality improvement policies. We merged the survey data from 21 committees that oversaw training programs and used the Dutch Residency Educational Climate Test (D-RECT) instrument in 2012 to measure their training programs' learning climate. We used descriptive statistics and linear mixed models to analyse associations between the functioning of hospital-wide education committees and corresponding learning climates.ResultsIn total, 812 resident evaluations for 99 training programs in 21 teaching hospitals were available for analysis. The implementation level of the internal quality management systems as adopted by the hospital-wide education committees varied from 1.6 to 2.6 on a 5 point Likert-scale (ranging from 1 (worst) to 5 (best)). No significant associations were found between the functioning of the committees and corresponding learning climates.ConclusionsThe contribution of hospital-wide committees to creating healthy learning climates is yet to be demonstrated. The absence of such an association could be due to the lack of a Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle guiding the policy as implemented by the committees and the lack of involvement of departmental leadership. Insight into the impact of these strategies on learning climates will benefit the quality of postgraduate medical education and, hopefully, patient care