Burnout in hospital-based surgeons. Approaches for prevention?

Background: Burnout among physicians is increasingly recognized as a public health issue including its scientific, political, and societal relevance. The effects of burnout go far beyond physician health as they affect the quality of care, patient safety, medical errors, and efficiency of health care. Objective: Assessment of the risk of burnout for hospital-based surgeons as well as associations between surgeon burnout and several work-related and person-related factors. Methods: From the representative Saxony physician survey from 2019, we utilized the subsample of 231 hospital-based surgeons. We conducted a regression analysis with workload, job satisfaction, work-life balance (WLB), resilience, inability to recover and health complaints as predictors of burnout (Maslach burnout inventory-General survey, MBI-GS). Results: Nearly half of the sample were female (49.4%), the average age was 42.0 years, 4.8% of participants exhibited burnout, 45.9% with some symptoms and 49.4% no burnout. Multivariate analysis showed significant positive associations between health complaints, inability to recover, a lack of job-based self-fulfillment and burnout. There were significant negative connections between WLB, the wish to remain in the job and burnout. Conclusion: Burnout is a serious problem for surgeons. Preventive measures should focus on risk factors associated with the workplace and organization of work. Interventions targeted at the individual level should start at an early career stage.