Trainee burnout: when does the fire start?

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Medical Education
• Physiological Monitoring

Background:

• Burnout is a significant issue in acute care, leading to depersonalization, ill health, and attrition.
• Newly qualified doctors (PGY1) are particularly vulnerable to stress and burnout.
• Quantifying physiological stress indicators in early-career physicians is crucial for understanding and mitigating burnout.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify physiological variables indicative of stress in newly qualified doctors.
• To correlate physiological stress data with burnout inventories and resilience scales.
• To examine stress levels during induction, normal working days, and on-call shifts.

Main Methods:

• Post Graduate Year 1 doctors (n=13) wore VivaLNK wellness devices for 14 days post-induction.
• Minute-by-minute Heart Rate (HR), Respiratory Rate (RR), and Stress Index (SI) were recorded.
• Data were correlated with Maslach Burnout Inventories, Short Grit Scales (SGS), and clinical rota duties.

Main Results:

• No significant variations in HR, RR, or SI were observed between Induction, Normal Working Day (NWD), and On-call shifts.
• Participant-specific temporal SIs correlated with shift duties, indicating consistent stress responses across different work periods (p<0.05).
• Higher Short Grit Scale (SGS) scores were inversely related to lower Stress Index (SI) values (p=0.001).

Conclusions:

• Stress and burnout in susceptible PGY1 doctors commence during induction and persist through clinical work, irrespective of shift patterns.
• The Short Grit Scale (SGS) is an effective tool for identifying individuals susceptible to stress.
• Targeted stress countermeasures can be facilitated by using resilience assessments like the SGS.