Burnout in interventional physiatry: A narrative review.

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Medical Subspecialties
• Physician Well-being

Background:

• Physician burnout is a major concern, particularly in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R).
• Existing research often overlooks practice pattern variations within PM&R, such as interventional physiatry.
• Interventional physiatry involves high procedural volumes and chronic pain management, potentially increasing occupational stressors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize the specific occupational stressors and burnout risk associated with interventional physiatry.
• To explore the prevalence of burnout in interventional physiatry compared to other PM&R practice patterns and analogous procedural specialties.

Main Methods:

• A narrative review of studies from PubMed, Embase, and Google Scholar was conducted.
• The review searched for literature on burnout in interventional physiatry and related procedural fields.
• Studies were screened based on SANRA guidelines.

Main Results:

• No studies specifically examined burnout among interventional physiatrists.
• Burnout rates in analogous procedural specialties (e.g., interventional radiology, cardiology, pain medicine) are high (69%-73.5%).
• Six potential stressor domains for interventional physiatrists were proposed: procedural pressure, pain management, patient satisfaction, documentation, physical strain, and identity tension.

Conclusions:

• It remains unclear if interventional physiatrists experience higher burnout than non-procedural PM&R physicians.
• Direct comparisons with other procedural specialties are limited due to differences in care models and patient acuity.
• Future research should focus on subspecialty-specific surveys and longitudinal studies to address this knowledge gap.