Tijuana.- Medical students who carry out their boarding school, which covers a year, work more than 24 hours a day, which causes high levels of stress, anxiety and depression, in addition to the health effects that suffer from health students, it should also be borne in mind that up to certain instances are responsible for providing care to most patients who go to the various health centers.
Dr. Guadalupe Bustamente Moreno, director of the Mental Health Hospital of Tijuana AC, has indicated that they have received a large number of cases particularly from medical students who have to be hospitalized due to different mental disorders.
“These students are very young people, the exhaustion after eight hours is overwhelming, they also need more time to study and strengthen teaching, as a student must also study everything he learned and memorized to perform the “We need to remember that there is Burnout Syndrome, which marks a physical fatigue in the area measured by the abuse of schedules and especially when they live inside the hospital,” he said.
Bustamante Moreno noted that at the Mental Health Hospital they have received several specific cases of medical students with mental disorders that even endanger their own lives.
“We have had students from different universities hospitalized in the area of the Mental Health Hospital, with strong depressive states and ideation or with suicide attempts. This is a consequence perhaps because the workload could not be assimilated and they are tired.” Bourneados’, then he has psychological or psychiatric problems, “he explained.
In the opinion of the director, the Secretary of Health of the federal government, must analyze how these long days of boarding school are carried out, which as a result has effects on young aspirants to medicine, concluded Bustamante Moreno .
“So far it has not been raised, nor when I was Secretary of Health I heard it, nor until today I have heard it, it will all depend on the curricula of each institution, some may be more flexible and others more stringent. it is more complicated is when they go to the rancherías, since it does not count on a complete service of health, then they have to enter to him to everything what is presented / displayed (…) This would be an analysis that must make the Secretariat of Federal health, to send students to internships or boarding schools by reviewing the studies they are going to do and for how many hours, before they were longer hours, “he added.
On the other hand, Rodolfo Rodríguez (name changed), a doctor moving into social service, spoke about his experience in the boarding school period, where he also explained what his job as an intern was.
“You leave the medical career of the 10 academic semesters, once you graduate you start a year that is divided into six services: surgery, psychiatry, pediatrics, gynecology, emergencies, family medicine and internal medicine, two months each service, in each service you do different activities, ”he explained.
During his hospitalization in the emergency department, the pandemic was presented by Covid-19, so he had to provide a full service replacing the accompanying professional doctor, as it focused on cases of the new disease.
“In the emergency department, in my case I was hit by a small hospital during the period of November and December, when there was a resurgence of Covid cases, the General Hospital was filled and the Tecate hospital it was also filled, the doctor in charge focused only on Covid-19 cases, so it was up to me to be in charge of the service, I was never touched by any extreme cases, ”he indicated.
When changing from Tecate General Hospital to Tijuana General Hospital, Rodríguez noticed a change, as the schedules of his hospitalization periods changed considerably, but he stated that the doctors in charge showed the its support allows you to sleep in small lapses.
“We were later re-accommodated at the General Hospital of Tijuana, where the days on duty covered a schedule of 7 am and left at 4 pm the next day. But as it was a quieter service was allowed to sleep in lapses I was not forbidden by the doctors, I was very aware of his part and (…) At the General Hospital of Tijuana, in pediatric oncology I had my longest days. he didn’t sleep at all, he was the only inmate, it was 25 hours straight, “he said.
Despite offering his services for a long period, the payment he received during his boarding school was very minimal, and he expressed that thanks to the support of his parents he was able to solve his expenses necessary to continue his studies. .
“I was paid 935 pesos a fortnight, I couldn’t cover my expenses. I was lucky to have the financial support of my parents. Some colleagues had minimal support and had to work outside. When the day was over I would return at home by road with awakening, the cost of petrol was 200 pesos per trip, ”he said.
Rodolfo Rodríguez explained what his medical internship was like during the pandemic period for Covid-19, from the lack of vaccination to the ban on caring for infected patients.
“In March all the inmates were withdrawn due to the Covid-19 pandemic, in July I started my boarding school, I was 8 months in the General Hospital of Tecate, the others
4 was changed to the General Hospital of Tijuana, but we were forbidden to care for Covid-19 patients, I am very grateful for this (…) We insist that we be given the vaccine while we do our hospitalization at the General Hospital of Tijuana, but in another Hospital, outside the city, they included us in their list as if we were inmates of this place, so we received our vaccine, ”he concluded.