Burnout, stress and Type D personality amongst hospital/emergency physicians

In previous studies, physicians have been identified as a high-risk group for burnout. Although the work environment has received more attention than specific determinants of personality traits, the latter might contribute to burnout.

We aimed to investigate the association of Type D personality, job and organizational determinants with burnout, stress and work engagement as outcome factors among emergency physicians and hospital physicians working in intensive care and surgery departments. We specifically focused on our group of emergency physicians.

In this cross-sectional study, self-report questionnaires were distributed via social media using a specific survey link to 531 Belgian hospital physicians working at the Emergency Department, Intensive Care, and Surgery Department between October 21, 2018, and April 11, 2019. The survey instrument included questions about sociodemographic characteristics, job characteristics, organizational factors, job satisfaction, social support by supervisors and colleagues (Leiden Quality of Work Questionnaire for Medical Doctors) and Type D personality (Distress Scale-14) and as outcomes burnout (Oldenburg Burnout Inventory) and work engagement (Utrecht Work Engagement Scale). A multiple regression analysis was used to examine the associations between the determinants and each of the outcomes with emergency physicians as the study population.

Eligible data were available for 436 questionnaires and involved 212 emergency physicians, 162 other hospital physicians (Intensive Care and Surgery Department) and 62 residents concerning both groups of physicians. Type D personality ranged from 28.5 to 29.1% in emergency physicians and other hospital physicians. Additionally, even after correcting for job-related and organizational factors, emergency physicians with Type D personality were seven times more likely to have a high risk for burnout.

As a result, this study offers a new perspective on the associations between burnout, stress and Type D personality. Type D personality might be a personality-related risk factor for burnout among emergency physicians. Therefore, we recommend enhanced prevention measures that take into account this individual factor in the further development of coaching programs. Improving the professional well-being of emergency physicians is necessary, especially in the scope of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, which has put a high demand on acute and emergency care departments.