Resident Burnout and Work Environment

OBJECTIVE: We examined the prevalence of burnout among resident doctors and its relationship with specific stressors. METHOD: We conducted a nationwide, online, cross-sectional survey in Japan with 604 resident doctors in 2018-2019. MATERIALS: Participants completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey to evaluate burnout and provided details of their individual factors and working environmental factors. Chi-square tests and t-tests were conducted for categorical and continuous variables, respectively. The association between burnout and resident-reported causes of stress, ways of coping with stress, number of times patient-safety incidents were likely to occur, and individuals who provide support when in trouble was analyzed using logistic regression analyses after controlling for confounding variables. RESULTS: A total of 28% met the burnout criteria, 12.2% were exhausted, 2.8% were depressed, and 56.9% were healthy. After adjusting for sex, postgraduate years, type of residency program, marital status, number of inpatients under residents' care, number of working hours, number of night shifts, number of days off, and resident-reported causes of stress - excessive paperwork [odds ratio (OR): 2.24, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.32-3.80], excessive working hours (OR: 2.75, 95% CI: 1.24-6.04), low autonomy (OR: 3.92, 95% CI: 2.01-7.65), communication problems at the workplace (OR: 2.24, 95% CI: 1.05-4.76), complaints from patients (OR: 6.62, 95% CI: 1.21-36.1), peer competition (OR: 2.22, 95% CI: 1.25-3.93), and anxiety about the future (OR: 2.13, 95% CI: 1.28-3.56) - were independently associated with burnout. The burnout group had more reported patient-safety incidents that were likely to occur per year (>10) (OR: 2.65, 95% CI: 1.01-6.95) and a lack of individuals who could provide support when in trouble (OR: 1.83, 95% CI: 1.01-3.34) than the non-burnout group. CONCLUSION: This study described the prevalence of burnout among residents who responded to our survey. We detected an association between burnout and resident-reported causes of stress, patient-safety incidents, and a lack of individuals who provide support when in trouble. Further interventional studies targeting ways to reduce these concerns are warranted.