The prevalence of burnout in Iranian residents: a cross-sectional study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Physical medicine and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine , Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Internal Medicine, Liver and Pancreatobiliary Diseases Research Center, Digestive Disease Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Neurology, Iranian Center of Neurological Research, Neuroscience Institute, Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Background: Burnout is a constellation of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and low sense of personal accomplishment that frequently occurs in people-related professionals such as healthcare personnel. In this cross-sectional study, we proposed to evaluate burnout in one of the tertiary hospitals of Tehran University of medical sciences across different medical specialties.
Methods: Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was handed out personally to 204 residents. The demographic questionnaire included age, gender, marital status, the level of residency, the field of residency. We categorized all specialties into 3 subgroups of surgery, internal medicine and paraclinical.
Results: Mean age of participants (n = 204) was 31.1 ± 4.6, and 127 (62.3%) subjects were female. Totally, 188 residents (92.2%) were burnt-out. For emotional exhaustion, 173 (84.8%) residents had a moderate or high score, for depersonalization 197 (96.6%) residents, and for low personal accomplishment 182 (89.2%). Between two genders, there was no significant difference of emotional exhaustion score (t = 0.07, p = 0.60) and personal accomplishment (t = -0.59, p = 0.15); however, depersonalization was significantly more prevalent in male reseidents (females: 21.9 ± 5.5, males: 20.6 ± 7.1; t = 1.47, p = 0.04). Regarding marital status, residency year and different specialties, we found no significant difference between male and female subjects.
Conclusion: In this study, burnout was very frequent in residents of all groups including different genders, residency years, marital status, and specialties. Given the very high level of burnout in our residents, it is essential to conduct further studies to find the possible causes of burnout and to look for ways to alleviate the situation.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

1.        Melchior ME, Bours GJ, Schmitz P, Wittich Y. Burnout in psychiatric nursing: a meta-analysis of related variables. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs. 1997;4:193–201.
2.        Zubairi AJ, Noordin S. Factors associated with burnout among residents in a developing country. Ann Med Surg. 2016;6:60–63.
3.        Soler JK, Yaman H, Esteva M, Dobbs F, Asenova RS, Katic M, et al. Burnout in European family doctors: the EGPRN study. Fam Pract. 2008;25:245–65.
4.        Rutherford K, Oda J. Family medicine residency training and burnout: a qualitative study. Can Med Educ J. University of Saskatchewan; 2014;5:e13-23.
5.        Jalili M, Sadeghipour Roodsari G, Bassir Nia A. Burnout and associated factors among Iranian emergency medicine practitioners. Iran J Public Health. 2013;42:1034–42.
6.        Maslach C, Jackson SE, Leiter MP. Maslach Burnout Inventory. CPP; 2006.
7.        Ishak WW, Lederer S, Mandili C, et al. Burnout during residency training: a literature review. J Grad Med Educ. 2009;1(2):236–42.
8.        Rostami Z, Abedi MR, Schaufeli WB, Ahmadi SA, Sadeghi AH. The psychometric characteristics of Maslach Burnout Inventory student survey: A study students of Isfahan University. Zahedan J Res Med Sci. 2014;16(9):55–58.
9.        Martini S, Arfken CL, Churchill A, Balon R. Burnout comparison among residents in different medical specialties. Acad Psychiatry. 2004;28(3): 240–42.
10.      Van Vendeloo SN, Godderis L, Brand PLP, Verheyen KCPM, Rowell SA, Hoekstra H. Resident burnout: evaluating the role of the learning environment. BMC Med Educ. 2018;18(1):54.
11.      Vogel L. Most Quebec medical residents show signs of burnout. Can Med Assoc J. 2018;190(12):E372.
12.      Lebares CC, Guvva E V., Ascher NL, O’Sullivan PS, Harris HW, Epel ES. Burnout and stress among US surgery residents: psychological distress and resilience. J Am Coll Surg. 2018;226:80–90.
13.      Levin KH, Shanafelt TD, Keran CM,  Busis NA, Foster LA, Molano JRV, et al. Burnout, career satisfaction, and well-being among US neurology residents and fellows in 2016. Neurology. 2017;89(5):492–501.
14.      Shakir HJ, McPheeters MJ, Shallwani H, Pittari JE, Reynolds RM. The prevalence of burnout among US neurosurgery residents. Neurosurgery. 2018; 83(3):582-90.
15.      Gouveia PA da C, Ribeiro Neta MHC, Aschoff CA de M, Gomes DP, Silva NAF da, Cavalcanti HAF. Factors associated with burnout syndrome in medical residents of a university hospital. Rev Assoc Med Bras. 2017;63:504–11.
16.      Waheed K, Liaqat N, Khanum A,  Ejaz S, Ijaz S, Butt A, et al. Burnout among gynaecological residents in Lahore, Pakistan: A cross-sectional survey. J Pak Med Assoc. 2017;67(9):1318–22.
17.      Tateno M, Jovanović N, Beezhold J, Uehara-Aoyama K, Umene-Nakano W, Nakamae T, et al. Suicidal ideation and burnout among psychiatric trainees in Japan. Early Interv Psychiatry. Epub. 2018;12(5):935-37.
18.      Joaquim A, Custódio S, Savva-Bordalo J,  Chacim S, Carvalhais I, Lombo L, et al. Burnout and occupational stress in the medical residents of Oncology, Haematology and Radiotherapy: a prevalence and predictors study in Portugal. Psychol Health Med. 2018;23(3):317–24.
19.      Yrondi A, Fournier C, Fourcade O, Schmitt L. Burnout compared between anaesthesiology and psychiatry residents in France. Eur J Anaesthesiol. 2017;34:480–82.
20.      Gandhi K, Sahni N, Padhy SK, Mathew PJ. Comparison of stress and burnout among anesthesia and surgical residents in a tertiary care teaching hospital in North India. J Postgrad Med. Epub. 2018;64(3):145-49.
21.      Shoimer I, Patten S, Mydlarski PR. Burnout in dermatology residents: a Canadian perspective. Br J Dermatol. 2018;178:270–71.
22.      Jamjoom R, Park Y. Assessment of pediatric residents burnout in a tertiary academic centre. Saudi Med J. 2018;39:296–300.
23.      Simpkin AL, Khan A, West DC, Garcia BM, Sectish TC, Spector ND, et al. Stress from uncertainty and resilience among depressed and burned out residents: a cross-sectional study. Acad Pediatr. 2018;18(6):698-704.
24.      Cofer KD, Hollis RH, Goss L, Morris MS, Porterfield JR, Chu DI. Burnout is associated with emotional intelligence but not traditional job performance measurements in surgical residents. J Surg Educ. 2018;75(5):1171-79.
25.      Nolan KJ, Writer H, Ladhani M. Wellness in Canadian paediatric residents and their program directors Paediatr Child Health. 2017;22(4):199–202.
26.      Baer TE, Feraco AM, Tuysuzoglu Sagalowsky S, Williams D, Litman HJ, Vinci RJ. Pediatric resident burnout and attitudes toward patients. Pediatrics 2017;139(3): 2016-163.
27.      Van Vendeloo SN, Prins DJ, Verheyen CCPM, Prins JT, Heijkant FVD, Heijden FMMAVD, et al. The learning environment and resident burnout: a national study. Perspect Med Educ. 2018; 7(2):120-25.
28.      Dahlke AR, Johnson JK, Greenberg CC, Love R, Kreutzer L, Hewitt DB, et al. Gender differences in utilization of duty-hour regulations, aspects of burnout, and psychological well-being among general surgery residents in the United States. Ann Surg. 2018; 268(2):204-11.
29.      Ramey SJ, Ahmed AA, Takita C, Wilson LD, Thomas CR, Yechieli R. Burnout evaluation of radiation residents nationwide: results of a survey of United States residents. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2017;99:530–38.
30.      Girdino D, Everly G, Dusek D. Controlling stress and tension. Needham Height. 9th ed. Allyn & Bacon; 1996.
31.      Hunter EC, Sierra M, David AS. The epidemiology of depersonalisation and derealisation. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2004;39(1):9–18.
32.      Fives H, Hamman D, Olivarez A. Does burnout begin with student-teaching? Analyzing efficacy, burnout, and support during the student-teaching semester. Teach Teach Educ. Pergamon; 2007;23(6):916–34.
33.      Fares J, Al Tabosh H, Saadeddin Z, El Mouhayyar C, Aridi H. Stress, burnout and coping strategies in preclinical medical students. N Am J Med Sci. Wolters Kluwer -- Medknow Publications; 2016;8:75–81.
34.      McManus IC, Keeling A, Paice E. Stress, burnout and doctors’ attitudes to work are determined by personality and learning style: A twelve year longitudinal study of UK medical graduates. BMC Med. 2004;2(1):29.
Future of Medical Education Journal
Volume 9, Issue 1
Spring
March 2019
Pages 3-8

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics