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Stress and Burnout in Training; Requiem for the Surgical Dream

Authors :
Luke Hopkins
Chris Bowman
David Robinson
Wyn G. Lewis
Richard J. Egan
Chris Brown
Tarig Abdelrahman
Damian M. Bailey
Osian P James
Michael J. Pollitt
Source :
Journal of Surgical Education. 77:e1-e8
Publication Year :
2020
Publisher :
Elsevier BV, 2020.

Abstract

Burnout among trainee doctors is common with as many as two-thirds reporting poor health. This study aimed to assess burnout in a cohort of UK core and higher general surgical trainees.The Maslach Burnout Inventory for Medical Personnel was distributed to 158 surgical trainees to evaluate emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP), and personal accomplishment (PA). High EE (≥27) and DP (≥10), low PA (≤33) scores were taken to indicate burnout.A single UK (Wales) Deanery.One hundred responses were received; 65 core surgical trainees, 31 Higher Surgical Trainees (HST), and 4 not specified.Median EE, DP, and PA scores were 22.0 (range 2-50), 7.5 (0-25), and 36.0 (19-47), respectively. High burnout by domain was: EE (n = 33), DP (n = 39), PA (n = 34), with 59% of trainees demonstrating burnout in ≥1 one domain, with strong interdomain correlation (EE:DP r = 0.351, p0.001; EE:PA r = -0.455, p0.001; DP:PA r = -0.446, p0.001). Female gender (p = 0.020), core surgical training grade (p = 0.012), and being childless (p = 0.033) were independently associated with higher levels of EE; whereas HST grade (p = 0.007), age30 years (p = 0.010), married/partner status (p = 0.001), and parenthood (p = 0.015), were associated with lower levels of burnout with regard to DP. Binary logistic regression revealed lower burnout in all domains to be associated with HST status (hazard ratio 0.116, 95% confidence interval 0.014-0.980, p = 0.048) and male gender (hazard ratio 4.365, (1.246-15.293), p = 0.021).Burnout among surgical trainees was common in at least 1 Maslach Burnout Inventory domain. Urgent counter measures are required to protect the health and wellbeing of trainees at risk, which ought to be associated with commensurate improvement in patient safety.

Details

ISSN :
19317204
Volume :
77
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Journal of Surgical Education
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....d9757d6177b0e65266b30218fc6d7e41
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2019.07.002