Trainee doctors' weekly working hours have fallen by more than seven hours over the past four years, yet their rates of depression and suicidal thoughts have instead risen, according to a survey.
According to the "Trainee Doctor Training Survey Report" by the Young Physicians Policy Institute, released Friday by the Korean Intern Resident Association (KIRA), trainee doctors' average weekly working hours fell 7.2 hours, from 77.7 hours in 2022 to 70.5 hours this year. During the same period, the rate of those who experienced working more than 80 hours a week dropped by nearly half, from 52% to 27%. The findings come from a comparative analysis of three trainee doctor training surveys conducted in 2022 (1,903 respondents), 2023 (1,677 respondents), and 2026 (1,754 respondents).
The institute said the results "appear to partly reflect the effects of institutional interventions such as the pilot project to reduce trainee doctors' working hours," while also explaining that "44.8% of respondents reported that the working hours recorded in their institutions' computer systems were logged as less than the actual hours, confirming a gap between records and actual working hours."
Despite the reduction in working hours, trainee doctors' mental health indicators worsened. According to the analysis, the rate of experiencing depression and hopelessness lasting more than two weeks rose from 24% to 31%, and the rate of experiencing suicidal thoughts rose from 17% to 23%. The proportion of respondents reporting good subjective health also fell from 42% to 28%. The institute noted that "the reduction in physical work burden did not directly translate into improved health," and pointed out that "it must be examined whether the reduction in working hours led to a substantial easing of work intensity and density."
Strengthening the training and education system remained an unresolved task. In this year's survey, only 38.6% of respondents said they received regular guidance and feedback from supervising specialists. Protected time per week—hours during which trainees can participate in core educational activities without being assigned to clinical work—averaged 4.1 hours, and 55.7% of respondents reported "two hours or less per week." The time spent receiving direct education from supervising specialists also averaged only 4.5 hours, prompting calls for a guaranteed minimum education time for both protected time and supervising-specialist education.
Anxiety related to medical disputes was also found to be widespread. While actual experience of medical accidents or disputes stood at just 4.2%, 76% of respondents said they felt anxious about medical disputes. Positive responses regarding the practice of defensive medicine due to anxiety and the impact of dispute concerns on career choices were recorded at 78% and 76%, respectively. This suggests that incidents in which medical staff are not protected in medical disputes can have a significant impact on future generations' career choices, regardless of the actual numbers.
The institute stressed that the findings "show that behind the outward improvement of reduced working hours, the deterioration of trainee doctors' mental health and gaps in education still exist," adding, "We hope this will be used as evidence for policy discussions that ensure both the quality of training and the health of trainee doctors, including the legislation of protected time, the substantiation of the supervising-specialist system, the establishment of a substitute-workforce system, and mental health support for trainee doctors."
