Cited by 169Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnoutInnovations in Medical EducationStress and Burnout Research

A Multi-institutional Study Exploring the Impact of Positive Mental Health on Medical Students’ Professionalism in an Era of High Burnout

Dyrbye, Liselotte N., Harper, William, Moutier, Christine, Durning, Steven J., Power, David V., Massie, F. Stanford, Eacker, Anne, Thomas, Matthew R. +3 more·2012·Academic Medicine

Abstract

PURPOSE: Although burnout is associated with erosion of professionalism and serious personal consequences, whether positive mental health can enhance professionalism and how it shapes personal experience remain poorly understood. The study simultaneously explores the relationship between positive mental health and burnout with professionalism and personal experience. METHOD: The authors surveyed 4,400 medical students at seven U.S. medical schools in 2009 to assess mental health (categorized as languishing, moderate, and flourishing) and burnout. Additional items explored professional behaviors, beliefs, suicidal ideation, and serious thoughts of dropping out. RESULTS: A total of 2,682/4,400 (61%) responded. Prevalence of suicidal ideation (55/114 [48.2%], 281/1,128 [24.9%], and 127/1,409 [9.1%]) and serious thoughts of dropping out (15/114 [13.2%], 30/1,128 [2.7%], and 14/1,409 [1.0%]) decreased as mental health improved from languishing, moderate, and flourishing, respectively (all P < .0001); this relationship between personal experience and mental health persisted independent of burnout (all P < .001). As mental health improved, the prevalence of unprofessional behaviors (i.e., cheating and dishonest behaviors) also declined, whereas students' altruistic beliefs regarding physicians' responsibility toward society improved. For example, 33/113 (29.2%), 426/1,120 (38.0%), and 718/1,391 (51.6%) of students with languishing, moderate, and flourishing mental health endorsed all five altruistic professional beliefs (P < .0001). The relationship between professional beliefs and mental health persisted among students with burnout, whereas fewer relationships were found among students without burnout. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that positive mental health attenuates some adverse consequences of burnout. Medical student wellness programs should aspire to prevent burnout and promote mental health.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1097/acm.0b013e31825cfa35

Cites

30 of 30 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Dyrbye, L. N., Harper, W., Moutier, C., Durning, S. J., Power, D. V., Massie, F. S., Eacker, A., Thomas, M. R., Satele, D., Sloan, J. A., & Shanafelt, T. D.
Affiliations
Mayo Clinic (US)
Corresponding author
Dyrbye, Liselotte N.
Venue
Academic Medicine
Published
2012-08
Volume
87
Issue
8
Pages
1024-1031
ISSN
1040-2446 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2060799864
Cited by
169
References
30
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 1
FWCI
12.51
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Academic Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Innovations in Medical Education
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
Keywords
positive mental health, medical student burnout, professionalism, eudaimonia, languishing, suicidal ideation, unprofessional behavior, cheating, medical education
MeSH terms
Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Altruism, Mental Disorders, Burnout, Professional, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Mental Health, Surveys and Questionnaires, Risk Factors, Schools, Medical, Student Dropouts, Students, Medical, United States, Prevalence, Statistics, Nonparametric, Suicidal Ideation

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review