Sense of Purpose and Perceived Person-Environment Fit's Effect on Burnout in Vascular Surgery Residents

Vascular surgery residents face a high degree of burnout, despite the identification of modifiable risk factors. Business organizations have used the psychosocial work environment including workplace fit and "sense of purpose" to assess employee satisfaction and productivity. We sought to evaluate the effect of these factors on burnout in vascular surgery trainees.

An electronic questionnaire was sent to all US vascular surgery fellowship and residency program directors to distribute to their trainees. This survey included 15 questions compiled from the Danish Psychosocial Work Environment Questionnaire, Meaning of Life Questionnaire, and Oldenburg Burnout Inventory to assess the psychosocial work environment, sense of purpose, burnout, as well as demographic information. Univariate analysis was performed to identify factors associated with sense of purpose, workplace fit, and burnout.

83/319 (26%) trainees at 54 accredited programs completed the questionnaire (ages ranging from 21-50, 26 females (38.2%), 39 males (57.4%)). A total of 43.4% were married, 20.9% had children, and 88.2% had a mentor in vascular surgery. Higher psychosocial work environment inversely correlated to burnout (P < 0.0001) and presence of purpose directly correlated with burnout (P < 0.0001). Male trainees were found to have higher burnout scores (P = 0.04) and less trust between colleagues (P = 0.03). Furthermore, those who has a mentor in vascular surgery had a significant relationship to the presence of purpose (P = 0.007) and higher burnout scores (P = 0.007).

This study shows the utility of examining burnout through a psychosocial lens. Further analysis into these relationships could yield actionable interventions that tackle root causes of burnout.