Engineering in Medicine: Bridging the Cognitive and Emotional Distance between Medical and Non-Medical Students

Abstract

In the current study, we focused on measuring the development of important professional attitudes, such as “compassion satisfaction” and “burnout”. Students from four different colleges worked in teams to conceptualize innovative engineering products.  During the ideation phase of their project, participants completed a Professional Quality of Life survey to assess metrics related to compassion satisfaction and burnout. On average, the combined compassion satisfaction score was high for both medical students (42/50) and non-medical students (43/50).  In terms of burnout, 77% of medical students and 81% of non-medical students reported low burnout; the average burnout score for medical students was 19/50, and for non-medical students 17/50.  Only one statement produced a statistically significant difference between groups. For the statement, “I am a caring person”, only 31% of medical students self-described as being a very caring person ‘very often’ as opposed to 62% of non-medical students. Through this innovative curriculum project, faculty were able to measure the level of student compassion satisfaction, and burnout for the students involved. Surrounded by the rationality of science, students learned to communicate and contribute to projects that supported a positive sense of contribution and effort, and a low perception of burnout.