Long days for medical students affect mental health – El Sol de Tijuana

Tijuana. Medical students who carry out their one-year internships, do days in excess of 24 hours, causing high levels of stress, anxiety and depression, in addition to the health effects that students experience in terms of health, should also bear in mind that Even some cases are responsible for providing care for the majority of patients who come to the different health centers.

Dr. Guadalupe Posdamante Moreno, director of the Mental Health Hospital in Tijuana AC, noted that they have received a large number of cases, mainly from medical students who must be hospitalized due to various mental disorders.

“These students are very young, and the exhaustion after eight hours is enormous, and they also need more time to study and reinforce teaching, because the student must also study and memorize all that they have learned to carry out their specialty. He pointed out that we must remember that there is a fatigue syndrome which represents Physical stress in the area measured by poor appointments, especially when they are in hospital.”

Bustamante Moreno noted that at the Mental Health Hospital, they received various specific cases of medical students with mental disorders that put their lives at risk.

“We have received students from different universities at the hospital in the mental health hospital area, with strong depressions and suicidal ideation or attempts. He explained that this is probably a result that the workload cannot be accommodated and they have Burnaydus fatigue, so they have psychological or psychological problems.”

In the director’s opinion, the federal government’s Ministry of Health should analyze how these long days of training are implemented, which as a result have implications for young people who are ambitious in medicine, Bustamante Moreno concluded.

“So far it has not been brought up, nor when I was the Minister of Health I did not listen to it, nor did I hear it until today, everything will depend on the educational programs of each institution, some may be more flexible and some more strict. When it is more complicated when they go to the farms, Because they do not have a full health service, they have to enter everything that is offered (…) This will be an analysis that the Federal Ministry of Health will have to do, to send students to courses or internships to review the studies they will do and the number of hours, before they become hours longer.”

On the other hand, Rodolfo Rodríguez (name changed), a trainee doctor in social work, spoke about his experience in the internship, also explaining what his job as a trainee consisted of.

“The medical profession leaves the ten academic semesters, once you graduate, you start a year divided into six services: in surgery, psychiatry, paediatrics, gynecology, emergency, family medicine and internal medicine, two months for each service, in each service doing activities,” he explained. different.

During his training in the emergency specialty, the Covid-19 pandemic occurred, so he had to provide a full service instead of the professional doctor accompanying him, as he focused on cases of the new disease.

“In the emergency service, in my case, I had a small hospital during the November-December period, when there was a recovery in Covid cases, the general hospital was full and Tekkati hospital was also full, and the doctor in charge only focused on Covid-19 cases, so it was my responsibility to be responsible for service, and I’ve never had an extreme case.”

Moving from Tecate General Hospital to Tijuana General Hospital, Rodriguez noticed a change, with his hospital stay hours adjusted significantly, but he emphasized that the doctors in charge had shown their support by allowing him to sleep for short periods. .

Later, we were rearranged at Tijuana General Hospital, where I stretched work days at 7am and left at 4pm the next day. But since it was a quieter service, she was allowed to sleep at night. The doctors did not stop me, I was well aware of his role (…) At Tijuana General Hospital, in pediatric oncology, I had the longest days. During the emergency period he did not sleep at all and was the only inmate and was 25 consecutive hours.”

Although he provided his services for a long time, the remuneration he received during his apprenticeship was very little, and he expressed that thanks to the support of his parents, he was able to pay for his expenses necessary to continue his studies.

“They paid me 935 pesos every two weeks, and I couldn’t make ends meet. I was fortunate to have financial support from my parents. Some colleagues had little support and they also had to work abroad. When I finished my day I would come home by road awake, the cost of petrol was 200 pesos. for every trip.

Rodolfo Rodriguez explained what it was like for him during his medical training during the COVID-19 pandemic, from lack of vaccination to banning treatment of infected patients.

“In March they removed all prisoners due to the Covid-19 pandemic, in July I started my internship, I spent 8 months at Tecate General Hospital, the others

No. 4 has been changed to Tijuana General Hospital but we have been prevented from treating Covid-19 patients, I appreciate it very much (…) We insist that they will give us the vaccine while we are doing our training at Tijuana General Hospital but in another hospital out of town they put us on their list It’s like we’re inmates in that place so we got our vaccinations.”