Occupational burnout, job satisfaction and anxiety among emergency medicine doctors in Turkey

The objective of the study was to investigate possible differences in the levels of anxiety, burnout and job satisfaction among emergency medicine doctors based on their age, gender, employment duration, job title and institution.

General practitioners, residents, specialists and faculty members working in emergency departments (ED) in Turkey were invited to participate in this questionnaire-based study through an e-mail link between September 2018 and January 2019. A total of 141 doctors from different cities of Turkey who completely filled the questionnaire with their own will were recruited for the study. The Maslach Burnout Inventory(MBI) was used to measure occupational burnout levels, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory(STAI) to measure anxiety levels and the Short Form Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire(SFMSQ) to measure job satisfaction levels of doctors working in EDs. In assessing MBI; Emotional Exhaustion score(EE) is considered low for 0-11 points, moderate for 12-17 points and high >17 points; Depersonalization score is considered low for 0-5 points, moderate for 6-9 points and high ≥ 10 points; , Feeling of low personal accomplishment(PA) is considered low for 0-21 points, moderate for 22- 25 points and high ≥ 26 points. In Assessing STAI; 20- 49 points were considered low/ moderate anxiety and 50- 80 points considered high/ very high anxiety. In assessing SFMSQ neutral job satisfaction point was reported 3; so individuals are considered extremely dissatisfied/ not satisfied (low) if job satisfaction point <3 and very/ extremely satisfied (high) if job satisfaction point >3.

The mean age of the study group was 33.3 (±7.3) and mean employment duration was 8.37 (±6.89). In the overall study population, the emotional exhaustion(EE) was high while depersonalization(DP) and reduction of personal accomplishment(PA) were detected at medium level in the evaluation of MBI subscales. In evaluating overall study population for STAI, state and trait anxiety scores both showed the presence of mild to moderate anxiety. The overall study population evaluation results for SFMSQ were, high levels of general and intrinsic job satisfaction and low levels of extrinsic job satisfaction was measured. Younger the age and shorter the duration of employment is found to be associated with a significant increase in EE and DP and a significant decrease in PA.

In this study, scale results showed that doctors working in EDs had high levels of occupational burnout and anxiety, while job satisfaction levels were low. In addition, a significant relationship was found between the decrease in "age and employment duration" and the increase in "depersonalization".