Burnout Among Pathology Residents in Pakistan

To determine the frequency of burnout among pathology residents and the drivers contributing to its development at a tertiary care centre.

Cross-sectional, descriptive study. Place and Duration of the Study: Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi, and Combined Military Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan, from September to October 2023.

A total of 80 pathology residents participated in the study by submitting a self-reported questionnaire. The first part covered demographic and work-related factors, while the second part used a validated 22-item Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) assessing emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and personal achievement with Likert scores from 0 to 6.

A total of 68% of residents were burned out, with 65% showing high emotional exhaustion (EE), 71% high depersonalisation (DP), and 69.4% low personal achievement (PA). Histopathology residents had the highest burnout rates. Cronbach's alpha scores confirmed the reliability of the EE (0.96), PA (0.90), and DP (0.74) scales.

A high prevalence of burnout was observed among pathology residents in this study. Nationwide studies are required to understand, correlate, and formulate measures for preventing and managing it.

Burnout, Emotional exhaustion, Depersonalisation, Personal achievement, Pathology residents.