MONDAY, Jan. 10 (HealthDay News) -- The incidence of burnout and risk for burnout are high in physicians, particularly residents, and more than a quarter of anesthesiology chairs meet criteria for high burnout, according to two articles published in the January issue of Anesthesiology.
Steve A. Hyman, M.D., of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., and colleagues surveyed 145 health care professionals (46 percent physicians/residents, 44 percent nurses/nurse anesthetists, 10 percent other personnel) to evaluate the risk of burnout among medical personnel from one perioperative unit. They found that residents scored higher than other physicians on global burnout scores, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization. Residents also had higher health and workload values than physicians. In addition, physicians' scores were higher than those of the other health care professionals.
Gildàsio S. de Oliveira Jr., M.D., of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and colleagues surveyed 117 academic anesthesiology chairs to determine levels of burnout. Of the 93 usable responses, they found 26 and 29 chairs met criteria for high burnout and moderately-high burnout, respectively. They concluded that both the incidence and risk of burnout were high and that risk was increased by low job satisfaction and low support from a spouse or significant other.
"Because of the high financial and emotional cost to institutions and because of the paramount role these leaders have on shaping the future of anesthesiology, academic institutions and professional societies should be encouraged to develop strategies and perform studies evaluating methods of reducing burnout in our chairs," de Oliveira and colleagues conclude.
Full Text - Hyman
Full Text - de Oliveira
Editorial
