- E Kains: Etudiante en Médecine, ULB. ekains@ulb.ac.be
According to several English, Canadian and American surveys, Burn-out syndrom can affect up to half of medical students during their studies, with the occurrence rate varying with the year of study. As is case for health professionals, a number of factors, be they individual-related, intrinsic to the job, or external, have been highlighted by this research. Burn-out can lead to serious personal, academic or professional consequences. Furthermore, there is an apparent correlation between burnout and a lack of professionalism, as well as between Burn-out and a low [corrected] capacity for empathy. Medical schools should play a central role in detecting and addressing psychological hardship among their students, but the simple recognition of Burn-out syndrom as a real problem faced by medical students currently constitutes a major challenge.