The impact of gender and working hours on pulmonary physician burnout

Physician burnout has attracted an increasing amount of attention as a global public health problem. It is associated with negative clinical and organizational outcomes, including lower patient satisfaction, patient safety, and quality of care. The work of pulmonary physicians involves high levels of stress, putting them at higher risk of burnout. This study aimed to evaluate the personal and professional characteristics associated with burnout among pulmonary physicians.

Between March 2020 and May 2020, a survey to evaluate burnout and career satisfaction among pulmonary physicians was conducted in Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital. The survey collected information on physician characteristics, career satisfaction, and burnout. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), the gold standard tool for measuring burnout, was used to measure burnout symptoms. Self-reported professional satisfaction in relation to career, specialty, and work-life balance was recorded.

Of 130 pulmonary physicians contacted, 125 (96.1%) completed full-length surveys. Ninety-one (72.8%) of these 125 physicians were female. The survey participants had a median age of 40 years. Of the respondents, 48.8% had at least one symptom of burnout according to high emotional exhaustion (EE) score and/or high depersonalization (DP) score. Univariable analysis showed female gender, the number hours worked per week, the number of nights on call per month, and the number of calls per night shift to be factors associated with burnout. Gender and hours worked per week were independent factors associated with burnout in multivariate analysis.

The MBI was able to characterize burnout experienced by pulmonary physicians in our hospital. Gender and the number of hours worked per week were the significant factors independently associated with burnout among the physicians in our study.