A Mayo Clinic study of 16,394 internal medicine residents found large numbers who are experiencing burnout, stress and high debt levels from student loans. The researchers found that these stressors are affecting physicians' ability to learn.
• 52 percent of graduate medical students reported symptoms of burnout.
• 46 percent were emotionally exhausted.
• 33 percent were "somewhat" or "very" dissatisfied.
• 29 percent had weekly feelings of depersonalization -- lacking empathy or feeling callous.
• 15 percent said quality of life was "as bad as it could be" or "somewhat bad."
• Those with debt higher than $200,000 were more stressed and had lower medical test scores.
Source: Journal of the American Medical Association report by Colin West, Tait Shananfelt and Joseph Kolars
