Young doctors are feeling burnt-out, and this affects their ability to empathise with patients, a local study has found.
Researchers surveyed nearly 500 medical residents across 34 specialities in three public hospitals, eight in 10 of whom said they felt emotionally exhausted, lacking in personal accomplishment, or some degree of depersonalisation. These are generally considered to be the three components of burnout.
On top of that, researchers found that medical residents – who are training to be specialists – in Singapore are more burnt-out than their counterparts in the United States, and have lower levels of empathy.