Regrets

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Now we have p-values and 95% confidence intervals to suggest (and only suggest):

When you mistreat medical students, they burn out, stop caring about their patients, and question every life decision that led them here. Groundbreaking.


Evidence Highlights 

🔥 Burnout: Students who reported mistreatment more than once had

  1. Exhaustion: β = 1.81, p < .001.  A whole extra point on the burnout scale. Clinically and statistically significant. 👀
  2.  Disengagement: β = 0.71, p < .001. That empty stare in lecture is measurable. 👀

💔 Empathy Loss

  1. For each 1-point drop in emotional climate, empathy scores dropped β = –0.13, p < .001. Toxic environments literally reduce empathy. 
  2. Poor faculty interaction also correlated with empathy loss: β = –0.07, p < .001. So yes, a sarcastic attending and passive-aggressive evaluations can actually alter brain chemistry (citation: this study and life in general).

😞 Career Regret: Students exposed to repeated mistreatment were more likely to say they’d choose a different path

  • Mistreatment >1x: OR = 1.87, p < .001
  • Each unit of exhaustion: OR = 1.22, p < .001
  • Each unit of disengagement: OR = 1.15, p < .001


💡Protective Factor  

  • Positive faculty interaction
  • Supportive emotional climate
  • Peer connection
  • Higher baseline empathy (A buffer — but still breakable)
  • Fewer mistreatment incidents (who knew?)


Did We Really Need a Study to Know This?

Apparently, yes. 

Here we are — with robust regression models to confirm that respect works.



😮 Dyrbye LN, West CP, Satele D, Boone S, Sloan J, Shanafelt TD. Association of Characteristics of the Learning Environment and US Medical Student Burnout, Empathy, and Career Regret.

JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(8):e2119110. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.19110

😫 Willis, O. (2020, February 10). “not good for patient safety”: Bullying still rife in medicine. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2020-02-10/bullying-harassment-medicine-doctors/11949748 



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