COVID-19 Exposure Risk, Burnout, and Shifts in Family Medicine Faculty's Efforts: A National Survey

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, academic family physicians had to change their clinical, teaching, research, and administrative efforts, while simultaneously balancing their home environment demands. It is unclear how the changes in effort affected physicians' personal well-being, particularly burnout. This study sought to identify changes in faculty's clinical, teaching, research, and administrative efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic and how effort shifts were associated with burnout. We also examined associations with important demographics and burnout.

We took data from the 2020 Council of Academic Family Medicine's Educational Research Alliance survey of family medicine educators and practicing physicians during November 2020 through December 2020. We analyzed self-report measures of demographics, effort (clinical, teaching, research, and administrative) before and during the pandemic, COVID-19 exposure level, and rates of burnout (emotional exhaustion and depersonalization) using logistic regressions.

Most participants reported no change in efforts. If changes were reported, clinical (21.6%) and administrative (24.8%) efforts tended to increase from before to during the pandemic, while teaching tended to decrease (27.7%). Increases in teaching and clinical efforts were associated with higher rates of emotional exhaustion. Higher depersonalization was associated with increased clinical efforts. Being older and working in a rural setting was associated with lower burnout, while being female was associated with higher burnout.

Shifts in effort across academic family physicians' multiple roles were associated with emotional exhaustion and, to a lesser degree, depersonalization. The high rates of burnout demand additional attention from directors and administrators, especially among female physicians.