Medical trainee burnout showed mixed changes during the pandemic
Pandemic-era studies of medical trainees reported stable emotional exhaustion, less emotional detachment and lower personal accomplishment compared with earlier studies. Patterns differed by specialty and country.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
The review found no uniform change in burnout among postgraduate medical trainees during the pandemic. Emotional exhaustion was reported as stable, while depersonalisation, meaning emotional detachment, and personal accomplishment declined compared with earlier studies. These dimensions changed differently, and specialty and country patterns varied, so the pooled findings do not support a single verdict for all trainees.
The abstract does not establish that identical trainees were followed across periods or explain the reference for its standardized effect values. The comparison cannot isolate the pandemic as the cause of differences.
What researchers found
Separate burnout questionnaire dimensions
Earlier versus pandemic-era trainee studies, divided at March 2020; comparisons used Hedges' g. Results varied across specialties and countries.
Separate dimensions tell different stories
The review required a particular burnout questionnaire and reported its dimensions separately. Stable exhaustion should not be read as proof of equivalence, while declines in detachment and accomplishment describe different aspects of trainees' experiences.
Specialty patterns differed
Emergency medicine trainees reported worse burnout during the pandemic, whereas anesthesiology, psychiatry and urology trainees reported less. These subgroup findings show why an average across studies cannot describe every training specialty equally.
The original publication
Burnout before and during COVID: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 48 698 trainees.
Prentice S, Dorstyn DS, Massy-Westropp N et al.
Med Educ · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 40581875
- Record checked
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