Study Finds Doctors More Prone to Burnout

Some 37.9% of physicians said they experienced burnout symptoms and 40.2% said they were dissatisfied with their work-life balance.

Burnout is significantly more common in physicians—particularly for those on the front line of care—than it is among the general U.S. workforce, researchers found.

Some 37.9% of physicians said they experienced burnout symptoms and 40.2% said they were dissatisfied with their work-life balance, versus 27.8% of those in the general U.S. workforce experiencing burnout symptoms and 23.2% who said they felt overworked, a significant difference (P<0.001 for both), according to Tait Shanafelt, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, and colleagues.

The study also found that healthcare professionals practicing in fields providing front-line care, such as emergency medicine, were at significantly greater risk than other fields for burnout (P?0.02 for all front-line specialties compared with other specialties), the researchers reported online in the Archives of Internal Medicine.