Physician burnout refers to “a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged stress in the workplace.” Multiple factors may lead to burnout, including lack of independence at the workplace, overwork, and lack of time for non-professional activities.
The importance of burnout in the medical field lies in the potential for errors in diagnosis and treatment, the lower patient satisfaction score, and the increased odds of absenteeism. It could lead to fewer physicians being available for healthcare, which may impact the neediest areas and the most in-demand specialties first.
This could cause patient waiting times for consults to go up, decreasing access to healthcare and reducing the quality of care as well.
The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was used to assess physician burnout. The MBI measures physician burnout using three subscales, namely, Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Professional Efficacy.
Surprisingly, over 45% of physicians reported one or more burnout symptoms using this scale. Some researchers reported a steep rise in burnout rates with the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, especially as the second year ran its course.
The major features observed among physicians at this time were depersonalization and emotional exhaustion. Since many reasons may contribute to bias in the estimation of the national burnout rate among physicians, the current study sought to compensate for these factors and achieve a more accurate figure.
Some of these confounding factors include the fact that physicians with more experience tend to feel less burned out; those with more burnout tend to leave the medical field. Moreover, the response rate in burnout surveys is often low. The current study used a high-response survey, linking responses by participants through all three surveys to overcome sources of bias.
What did the study show?
The study comprised three surveys covering almost 1400 physicians belonging to the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization (MGPO). This number represents 73% of the number who originally enrolled in the first survey. The respondents belonged to either sex in equal proportions, but slightly over two-thirds were White. About 13% were Hispanic.
All three surveys had a high response rate, linked to the significant financial incentive of $850. While the first and second surveys in 2017 and 2019 obtained a 93% response rate each, the last one in 2021 had a 92% response.
