Abstract
The high-pressure learning environment of medical training creates considerable stressors for students. In Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally, curricular, and institutional initiatives have only been partially successful in reducing distress and burnout, as the transition from layperson to doctor involves significant challenges within socialization into medical culture.
Burnout may arise from ‘moral distress’, the inability to act in accord with personal values. Moral distress is a useful lens for exploring students’ early observations and initial experiences of medical values, customs, and social traditions in the clinical workplace. Moral distress can be addressed through meaningful connection with others, including contributions to patient care and carefully structured reflective practice. Well-facilitated small group work can offer valuable opportunities for students to share clinical stories, feel respected and validated, and develop emotional intelligence. Meaningful connections with peers, patients, and staff can increase students’ capacity for empathy and compassion, heighten their sense of belonging to the profession and reduce rates of imposter syndrome and burnout.
However, institutional and historical barriers must be addressed if reflective practice is to be funded, timetabled, and normalized within medical culture.