Burnout among resident physicians who work duty shifts in the emergency department

Fernández Martínez O, Hidalgo Cabrera C, Martín Tapia A, Moreno Suárez S, García Del Río García B

Background and aims: To assess the degree of professional and/or

occupational burnout among resident physicians at a General

Hospital performing Emergency Department (ED) shift duty.

Methods: Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study. Study population:

the 92 Resident Physicians performing shift duty in the ED. Measures:

Anonymous self-administered questionnaire with socio-demographic and

occupational variables, suggestions, and the 22-item MASLACH BURNOUT

INVENTORY assessing emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation

and professional accomplishment. Statistical analysis using the Student’s

t-test and the ÷2 test.

Results:Material: Number of validly answered questionnaires, 58 (response

rate, 63.0%). Mean age of the responders 26 years (72.4% women).

Among the responder population, 48.3% were first-year, 36.2% secondyear

and 15.5% third-year resident physicians; 50% of the responding

population were resident physicians in the Community and Family Medicine

speciality. Ninety-five per cent of the studied population were dutyfree

after ED duty. The first-year Resident Physicians performed an average

5 ED duty shifts per month, the 2nd-year ones an average 2, and

the 3rd year ones an average 3. The mean assessment values were: depersonalisation

11.0 ± 5.4 (95% CI, 9.6-12.5), emotional exhaustion 34.0

± 10.1 (95% CI, 31.7-36.8), professional accomplishment 30.2 ± 7.6

(95% CI, 28.0-31.9). Mean-high scores were recorded for depersonalisation

in 60% and for emotional exhaustion in 74%, and low scores for professional

accomplishment in 70%. Those Resident Physicians who were

not duty-free after ED shift duty showed significantly higher average depersonalisation

scores. Ninety-three per cent evidenced some level of

burnout (50% moderate, 43% high). High burnout levels were observed

in all those resident physicians who were not duty-free after ED shift duty

(p<0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in burnout level related to gender, age, residency year, speciality or ED duty shift numbers. As suggestions for mitigating the burnout incidence, the request for improvement in labour conditions may be stressed. Conclusions:The burnout degree is very high among the resident physicians in our hospital performing ED shift work.

Fernández Martínez O, García Del Río García B, Hidalgo Cabrera C, Martín Tapia A, Moreno Suárez S