American Urological Association Workforce Task Force on Burnout and Coping

To evaluate coping mechanisms and willingness to seek professional help for burnout using the 2023 American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Census.

A total of 1918 urologists, representing 14% of practicing urologists in the US, completed the 2023 AUA Census. Post-stratification weighting was performed to adjust for non-response bias. The survey collected demographics, practice patterns, and experiences with burnout, coping mechanisms, willingness to seek professional help, and barriers for seeking professional help. We performed bivariate analysis to examine associations between responding urologist characteristics and burnout, coping, and professional help seeking.

Of the respondents, 45.4% of urologists reported experiencing burnout, and 33.5% report using unhealthy coping mechanisms for burnout. Only 17% of respondents have sought professional help for burnout. One-third of respondents reported external factors as deterrents for seeking professional help. Finally, 43% of respondents reported they would seek help if those questions regarding mental health were not included in the records for state licensure. Younger age was significantly associated with being more likely to seek help if questions were not included in their state licensure board records, with <34 years having the highest percentage (65%, P <.05).

Responding urologists have identified questions surrounding mental health conditions on state licensure boards as a factor deterring them from seeking professional help for burnout. With an ongoing urologic workforce shortage, policy changes, such as removing mental health questions pertaining to medical licensing and credentialing, are imperative to protect the health of the current workforce.