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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1432571
This article is part of the Research Topic Patient and Medical Staff Safety and Healthy Work Environment in the 21st Century View all 18 articles

Combined Empowerment, Continuous Appraisal, Psychological and Career Counseling Improve Medical Cadets' Satisfaction and May Potentially Offset Burnout During Internship Year. An 18-Months Successful Experience in a Tertiary Medical Center

Provisionally accepted
Gad Segal Gad Segal 1*Reut Shoham Reut Shoham 1Hanni Robinson Hanni Robinson 1Noy Yehiel Noy Yehiel 2Vered Robinzon Vered Robinzon 1Yael Nir Frenkel Yael Nir Frenkel 1
  • 1 Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel
  • 2 Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background. Following graduation, Israeli medical cadets complete a 12-months training period in hospitals, having profound influence on their future career. Burnout, sense of personal and professional uncertainty and disorientation are already notable in this group. The aim of the current study was to assess the potential impact of empowerment, psychological and career counseling on the level of satisfaction and burnout of medicine cadets during their internship year in a tertiary medical center.Methods. In a tertiary hospital's education authority, we offer constructed, personalized psychological and counselling services with continuous process of appraisal. During an 18month period we followed their monthly feedback relating to satisfaction, learning experience and level of socialization. The study was designed as comparative research assessing cadets' satisfaction before, and after intervention as a surrogate marker for their burnout.Results. Comparison of measured parameters showed statistically significant improvement, with interns stationed in the surgical departments (n = 86) showing the highest degree of improvement: the extent of acquiring new knowledge and competencies (1 to 5 Likert) went from 2.2 ± 1.0 to 3.3 ± 1.42 ; p < 0.005]; experience from the absorption process into the department [LQR from 2.6 ± 1.2 to 3.5 ± 1.56 ; p < 0.05], degree of motivation to recommend peers to apply for residency [LQR from 2.3 ± 1.0 to 3.1 ± 1.6 ; p = 0.05] and the experience of being accepted to the department by the staff nurses [LQR from 2.7 ± 1.3 to 3.5 ± 1.1 ; p < 0.05].A combined, ongoing process of appraisal, empowerment, psychological and career counseling seems promising in the relenting effort to improve cadets' satisfaction and hopefully withhold the burnout process of young physicians.

    Keywords: Interns, burnout, empowerment, satisfaction, appraisal, career counseling

    Received: 14 May 2024; Accepted: 11 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Segal, Shoham, Robinson, Yehiel, Robinzon and Frenkel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Gad Segal, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel

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