Burnout in U.S. Military Orthopaedic Residents and Staff Physicians

The purpose of this study was to measure the prevalence of burnout among military orthopaedic residents and staff surgeons at the U.S. Army Medical Center.

37 residents and 21 staff surgeons of a military orthopaedic residency program were asked to voluntarily complete an anonymous electronic survey. The survey consisted of two parts: first, a demographic section including questions about relationship status, work hours, deployment history, medical education debt, mentorship, and job satisfaction and second, the Maslach Burnout Inventory.

27 residents and 11 staff completed the survey for a 67% response rate. The rate of burnout among military orthopaedic surgeons in our study was 7.7% (3.7% of residents and 16.7% of staff surgeons). In addition, 25.6% of surgeons (33% of residents and 8.3% of staff) were found to be at risk of burnout.

Future studies should focus on causal relationships among specific aspects of the work environment and possible preventive or protective measures. Expanding future studies to include multiple study sites would improve the quality and generalizability of the results.