EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AND STRESSFUL LIFE OF A MEDICAL POSTGRADUATE RESIDENT: CAN INTRINSIC MOTIVATION BE THE WAY OUT?

Abstract

Objective: To assess the relationship between intrinsic motivation and emotional exhaustion among postgraduate medical residents at Memon Medical Institute Hospital, Karachi. Methods: A correlational study was conducted with 52 postgraduate medical residents from multiple clinical departments at Memon Medical Institute Hospital, Karachi. Participants completed validated survey instruments: the intrinsic motivation subscale of the Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale and the emotional exhaustion subscale of the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory. Demographic information was collected on age, gender, marital status, years of education, and length of institutional experience. Descriptive statistics summarized participant characteristics. Pearson correlation was used to test the association between intrinsic motivation and emotional exhaustion scores, and analyses were performed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 24. On the emotional exhaustion subscale used, higher scores indicate less exhaustion. Results: Among 52 participants, 43 (82.7%) were female and 9 (17.3%) were male, with the majority (92.3%) aged 20–29 years. Most residents (42.3%) had less than one year of experience at the institution. The mean intrinsic motivation score was 13.37 ± 4.01, indicating a moderate to high level of intrinsic motivation, and the mean emotional exhaustion score was 7.08 ± 2.58, where lower scores indicate higher emotional exhaustion. A statistically significant positive correlation was observed, meaning higher intrinsic motivation correlated with lower emotional exhaustion (r = 0.414, p = 0.002). Conclusion: Higher intrinsic motivation was associated with lower emotional exhaustion among postgraduate medical residents at a single tertiary care hospital. This finding suggests that the residency program may be able to enhance intrinsic motivation, which in turn might improve the residents' emotional health. The program could pursue autonomy, purpose, constructive feedback, recognition of mastery, and alignment with the residents' interests and goals to pursue this. Future longitudinal and interventional studies should test causal pathways, evaluate sustainability, and explore generalizability across settings and specialties.

Keywords: Postgraduate Medical Residents, Intrinsic Motivation, Emotional Exhaustion

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16950293