Residency and Fellowship Program Administrator Burnout: Measuring Its Magnitude

Little is known about the level of burnout among program administrators (PAs) working in graduate medical education.

We created a national database with baseline burnout data for PAs from residency and fellowship programs, including intention to leave their current positions.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in July 2017 to assess levels of burnout in a national cohort of PAs, who were largely members of online specialty forums. The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) was used to measure burnout. Univariate analysis produced descriptive statistics for CBI. We performed a 2-sample t test to measure differences in average burnout scores for those who had thoughts of resigning from their positions and those who had not.

Of the approximately 10 205 national PAs, we sampled 1126 (11%). Of the 1126 individuals who received the study information, 931 (83%) completed the baseline survey. Total mean scores for all subscales were elevated (personal: 53.7, SD 21.4; work-related: 52.0, SD 22; and client-related: 30.6, SD 20.8; each scale ranged from 0, low, to 100, high). Burnout scores differed between those contemplating leaving their jobs and those who were not, across all subscales of CBI, including personal (64.2 versus 42.4, -24.18 to -19.44 confidence interval [CI]), work-related (63.5 versus 39.7, -26.12 to -21.35 CI), and client-related (36.6 versus 24.2, -14.95 to -9.84 CI; P < .0001 for all).

In this national survey of PAs, burnout scores measured by the CBI were higher among those who had considered leaving their positions.