Medical residents face several challenges in the working environment today, and those challenges change as they go further into residency, according to the Medscape Resident Lifestyle and Happiness Report 2016.
Here are five things to know:
1. The top five challenges for the residents in years one to four are:
• Work-life balance: 33 percent
• Dealing with the time pressures and demands on time: 23 percent
• Fear of failure or making serious mistake: 15 percent
• Developing clinical skills required for specialty: 14 percent
• Dealing with the stress: 8 percent
2. By years five to eight, the concerns shift slightly:
• Work-life balance: 40 percent
• Dealing with time pressures/demands on time: 20 percent
• Developing clinical skills required for specialty: 12 percent
• Fear of failure or making serious mistake: 11 percent
• Dealing with the stress: 8 percent
3. There were very few residents who reported challenges with their relationship to attending physicians or dealing with patient deaths or terminally ill patients.
4. Bullying can sometimes become a problem in residency programs; however, 41 percent of the respondents said they are rarely bullied and 36 percent said they are never bullied. Only 4 percent said they were often bullied and 20 percent reported occasional bullying.
5. Most of the residents report some depression, but only 10 percent said they are depressed always or most of the time; 53 percent said they are rarely or never depressed and 33 percent report depression sometimes.