Burnout among after-hours home visit doctors in Australia

BACKGROUND: No previous study had ever looked at Burnout among medical practitioners involved in after-hours house calls (AHHC) in Australia. The growing popularity of AHHC and the high number of overseas-trained doctors involved in it make this a subject of both local and international significance. This study aims to assess the levels of burnout among Australian-based doctors involved in the service. METHODS: This is a quantitative, questionnaire-based survey of all the 300 doctors engaged in AHHC through the National Home Doctor Service (NHDS), Australia’s largest home doctor-visit service providers. The study looked at experiences of the participants over the 12-months period from October 2013 to September 2014. The main outcome measure was the 22-item Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Results were presented as Means and Frequency Percentages. RESULTS: A total of 168 valid questionnaires out of 300 were returned, giving a 56.0 % response rate. The Total Maslach Mean Scores (MMS) obtained were 15.97 for Emotional Exhaustion (EE), 3.15 for Depersonalization (DP) and 40.39 for Personal Accomplishment (PA), signifying low-level burnouts in all three dimensions of the MBI. This pattern was equally reflected when the Frequency Percentages were analyzed. With this approach, a majority (56.8 %) of the responses were low-level burnout on the EE dimension, while 23.4 and 19.8 % respectively reported medium and high level burnouts. On the DP dimension, 87.6, 6.3 and 6.1 % of the responses were low, moderate and high level burnouts respectively, while the PA dimension recorded 86.4, 9.6 and 4.0 % respectively. Given that on the MBI scale, perceived personal accomplishment has an inverse relationship with burnout, the low-level MMS finding on the PA dimension therefore indicate a commensurate high perception of personal accomplishments. CONCLUSIONS: Burnout levels are low while perceived achievements are high among doctors involved in after-hours house calls in Australia. The survey recommends that future studies be designed to explore the real reasons behind these findings.