[DIFFERENCE IN THE PREVALENCE OF BURNOUT SYNDROME IN PRECLINICAL AND CLINICAL TEACHING DOCTORS OF MOSTAR SCHOOL OF MEDICINE].

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the difference in the prevalence of burnout syndrome in preclinical and clinical teaching doctors of Mostar School of Medicine in the academic year 2011/2012. Special attention was also focused on finding out the possible difference between the syndrome incidence that was correlated to gender and years of service. The main hypothesis was that the probability of burnout syndrome incidence was higher in the group of female clinical teaching doctors having more years of service.

Subjects And Methods: The study involved 62 people with high academic education employed at Mostar School of Medicine who were surveyed during a randomly selected consecutive 3-month period (February to May) of the academic year 2011/2012. The data were prospectively collected through a standardized questionnaire survey. The studied parameters were gender, years of work experience and the engagement in preclinical or clinical departments of the Medical School.

Results: The survey showed that 43 out of 62 (69.4%) respondents did not suffer the burnout syndrome, while moderate syndrome was recodred in 19 (30.6%) of them. No person had serious symptoms of the syndrome. The difference between the respondents who suffered the syndrome and those who did not was not statistically significant (P=0.002). Considering the gender of respondents, statistically significant differences were not confirmed (P=0.444). Considering the years of service, the highest incidence of the syndrome was found in people with more work experience (in the group of 21-25 years), but the difference between the groups was not statistically significant (P=0.271). Observing the work in preclinical and clinical departments, because of the limited number of patients we could not confirm the hypothesis. The syndrome had affected 13 (21%) clinical teaching doctors and 6 (9,7%) preclinical doctors, while the differenece between them was not statistically significant (P=0.054).

Conclusion: Considering the results of this research, it has not been proven that the burnout syndrome occurred more frequently in doctors who were involved in clinical teaching than in doctors who tought in preclinical departments. Also, there was no difference in the appearance of the syndrome that was related to gender and years of service.