TDK conference 2020

I have joined the research of my supervisor, dr. Kinga Fodor at the University of Veterinary Medicine, which has been dealing with the mental hygiene state of the hungarian vets. I have investigated formalisation of the mental health status, the relationship with the university training and studies of the veterinary students according to the time spent on the training. In this research we have focused on the factors of burnout syndrome, which is one of the biggest threats for veterinarians. With the help of an online survey that included 81 questions, which was built by the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Version, I have processed and investigated the students feelings towards the university, the student specified dimensions of the burnout syndrome and its’ health problem consequences. In the cases of two category (dichotomy) indicators we have analysed the gathered answers with the help of the Cochran-Armitage test. In those cases where we had more than two categories as choices we used the Kendall’s Tau correlation analasys method.

According to our research we can say that the burnout factors are getting worse with the progress of the university course and there is a significant positive correlation between the time spent at the university and the number of burnout factors experienced by students. Although, we have assessed a negative correlation between burnout factors and students experiencing success or the negative effect of the studies on free time activities. It has been particularly notable that the prevalence of stress induced diseases increases with the years spent at the university, resulting a 41,9% occurence in the graduating year. It is also remarkable that there is a casual link between the years spent on the course and regretting the choice of profession. 75,6% of freshmen students feel confident about their choice, while only 49,5% of the graduating students feel the same way about the course.

We came to the conclusion that most of the future generation of veterinarians have already encountered the bournout syndrome during their university life and many of the factors are getting worse with the time spent on the course. It has become clear that it would be essential to start prevention programs to ensure the mental health of the veterinarian students during their course.