Resident Doctors' Personality moderated the effect of Stress on Burnout and Professional fulfilment during COVID second wave

BACKGROUND: COVID pandemic has added to the stress during medical residency Stress during residency has been found associated with burnout Personality is associated to coping with stress and resulting outcome Personality factors are likely to modify the effect of stress on Burnout & Professional Fulfilment AIM: To study the role of personality on the association of stress with burnout and professional satisfaction among resident doctors during COVID second wave in India METHODS: A cross-sectional observational study among resident doctors in India using Google forms, approved by Institutional Ethics Committee Stanford Professional Fulfilment Index for Professional Fulfilment and Burnout 10 item Big five inventory (BFI) assed personality and Depression, Anxiety & Stress Scale - 21 to sassed Stress Pearson correlation to assess correlation and Hayes Process for moderation using SPSS V24 © IBM RESULTS: 152 participants 49.3% Males and 50.7% Females Mean age - 29.6 years (SD 4.5) 35.5% reported significant stress Average Stress score on DASS - 12.9 (SD 11.1) Mean Professional fulfilment (PF) score - 2.0 (SD 1.0) Mean Burnout score - 1.3 (SD 0.9) 20.4% residents felt professionally fulfilled 41.4% residents had burnout Stress negatively correlated with Agreeableness Stress positively correlated with Neuroticism Stress positively correlated with Burnout (ρ 0.67; p 0.00) Stress negatively correlated with Professional fulfillment (ρ -0.41; p 0.00) Only Conscientiousness moderated the effect of stress on Burnout and Professional fulfillment CONCLUSION: COVID pandemic generated significant stress among resident doctors Stress is associated with Burnout and Professional fulfilment Higher Conscientiousness reduced burnout due to stress Residents with higher Conscientiousness would experience more negative effect of stress on their professional fulfillment