Abstract
Medical student’s mental health and wellness is a multifactorial discussion that requires a multidimensional and comprehensive approach. The high prevalence of burnout and its recent recognition by the World Health Organization as a work-related syndrome has scholars questioning if experiences in early medical education have an impact. The Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at Florida International University in 2009 created an in-house counseling and wellness center. In assessing programming and services, approximately 55% of the medical student body has sought out individualized services from the Medical Student Counseling and Wellness Center. Moreover, the Association of American Medical Colleges Graduate Questionnaire results regarding the satisfaction of students in personal counseling, mental health services, and wellness programming have been 20% or higher than the national average. This is a call to action highly encouraging other medical schools to emulate and consider implementing a detailed and comprehensive program to be offered early in medical education.
References
Allegra, C. J., Hall, R., & Yothers, G. (2005). Prevalence of burnout in the U.S. oncology community: Results of a 2003 survey. Journal of Oncology Practice/ American Society of Clinical Oncology, 1, 140–147.
Aktekin, M., Karaman, T., Senol, Y. Y., Erdem, S., Erengin, H., & Akaydin, M. (2001). Anxiety, depression and stressful life events among medical students: A prospective study in Antalya, Turkey. Medical Education, 35, 12–17.
Arigoni, F., Bovier, P. A., & Sappino, A. P. (2010). Trend of burnout among Swiss doctors. Swiss Medical Weekly, 140, 13070–13079.
Chand, S. P., Chibnall, J. T., & Slavin, S. J. (2018). Cognitive behavioral therapy for maladaptive perfectionism in medical students: A preliminary investigation. Academic Psychiatry, 42, 58–61.
Dyrbye, L. N., Eacker, A., Durning, S. J., Brazeau, C., Moutier, C., Massie, F. S.,..., Shanafelt, T. D. (2015). The impact of stigma and personal experiences on the help-seeking behaviors of medical students with burnout. Academic Medicine, 90, 961–969.
Dyrbye, L. N., Thomas, M. R., Huntington, J. L., Lawson, K. L., Novotny, P. J., Sloan, J. A., Shanafelt, T. D. (2006). Personal life events and medical student burnout: A multicenter study. Academic Medicine, 81, 374–384.
Elit, L., Trim, K., Mand-Bains, I. H., Sussman, J., & Grunfeld, E. (2004). Society of gynecologic oncology C: Job satisfaction, stress, and burnout among Canadian gynecologic oncologists. Gynecologic Oncology, 94, 134–139.
Gopalkrishnan, N., & Babacan, H. (2015). Cultural diversity and mental health. Australasian Psychiatry, 23, 6–8.
Kettmann, J. D. J., Schoen, E. G., Moel, J. E., Cochran, S. V., Greenberg, S. T., & Corkery, J. M. (2007). Increasing severity of psychopathology at counseling centers: A new look. Professional Psychology: Research and Practic, 38, 523–529.
Leung, J., Cloninger, C. R., Hong, B. A., Cloninger, K. M., & Eley, D. S. (2019). Temperament and character profiles of medical students associated with tolerance of ambiguity and perfectionism. Peer Journal, 7, e7109.
Maslach, C., Jackson, S. E., & Leiter, M. P. (1996). Maslach burnout inventory manual (3rd ed.). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
Moffat, K. J., McConnachie, A., Ross, S., & Morrison, J. M. (2004). First year medical student stress and coping in a problem-based learning medical curriculum. Medical Education, 38, 482–491.
Rotenstein, L. S., Ramos, M. A., Torre, M., Segal, J. B., Peluso, M. J., Guille, C.,..., Mata, D. A. (2016). Prevalence of depression, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation among medical students: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA, 316, 2214–2236.
Funding
No funding was received or provided for this manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
Melanis Rivera-Rodriguez and Nathaly Shoua-Desmarais declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Ethical Approval
CITI Program record ID#: Melanis Rivera-Rodriguez #24682251 and Nathaly Shoua-Desmarais #3403498. IRB Protocol NHSR #: IRB-19-0247.
Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent
This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rivera-Rodriguez, M., Shoua-Desmarais, N. Case Report: The Gold Standard: The Case for Inclusion of a Medical Student-Specific Counseling Center and Wellness Programming in Early Medical Education. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 28, 368–373 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-020-09726-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-020-09726-4