Emotional Fatigue, Depersonalization, and Professional Fulfillment among Students of a Private Dental College in Chennai, India

Article Info Background: Stress is unavoidable in life, a common physiological reaction of the body to an adverse stimulus. Burnout is a physiological response to the failure to control stress efficiently. Dentistry students appear to be more prone to anxiety, depression, and burnout due to the variety of stressful situations in their careers. Materials and Methods: The current study had a descriptive cross-sectional design, carried out among 311 clinical and postgraduate scholars of a private dental college in Chennai in 2021. Data was collected through a convenient sampling method using a validated questionnaire obtained from the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The data was analyzed using SPSS 26 software and parametric tests were applied. Results: The results showed that about 41.5% of the participants felt emotionally drained after every day’s clinical work. About 52% reported that they never treated the patients as impersonal objects, and 37.3% stated they never became less sensitive towards people after taking up the dental profession. Females had significantly higher emotional fatigue scores than males, and depersonalization scores were highest among interns compared to other groups (p<0.05). Conclusion: Students experience a considerable emotional burnout; however, it does not hinder the students' attitudes and practices towards patients' care and professional accomplishment. Necessary steps should be taken to reduce emotional fatigue, possibly further improving the students’ professional ability.