Health Professional Wellbeing

Aim

To determine the incidence of burnout among American surgeons and evaluate personal and professional characteristics associated with surgeon burnout.

Method

Members of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) were sent an anonymous, cross-sectional survey in June 2008. The survey evaluated demographic variables, practice characteristics, career satisfaction, burnout, and quality of life (QOL).  Burnout was measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), Symptoms of depression were identified using the 2-item Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME MD). Mental and physical QOL were measured using the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form (SF-12).  Additional questions were developed to explore demographic factors and professional characteristics.

Results

Overall, 32% had high emotional exhaustion, 26% demonstrated high depersonalization, and 13% had a low sense of personal accomplishment. 40% of respondents had either a high emotional exhaustion score and/or a high depersonalization score and were considered burned out. Approximately 30% of study participants screened positive for depression.  10–15% of respondents would have met the criteria for major depressive disorder. 28% of surgeons had a mental QOL score one half standard deviation below the population norm and 11% had a physical QOL score one half standard deviation below the population norm.

71% of the study participants indicated that they would become a physician again, 74% would become a surgeon again if they could revisit their career and specialty choice. 51% of surgeons indicated they would recommend their children pursue a career as a physician/ surgeon and 36% felt their work schedule left enough time for personal/family life.

Conclusion

Burnout among American surgeons is common but most were content with their career and specialty choice. Additional research is needed to identify individual, organizational, and societal interventions that preserve and promote the mental health of American surgeons.

Comment

A full 40% of participants in this study met the criteria for burnout. Interestingly 71% of participants indicated that they would become a physician again and 74% a surgeon if they could revisit their career. At the same time only 51% of physicians would recommend a similar profession for their own children and a meagre 36% felt their work schedule left enough time for persona/family life. Would a physician accept similar levels of stress in a patient? There seems to be a dichotomy between the levels of stress that physicians expose themselves to and what they would themselves see as acceptable levels of stress in their patients.

Writer Kabir Sattarshetty, Masters Student

Supervisor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

Comments Off