When work overflows: Factors influencing work-home interaction in medical residents

This study aims to assess the factors influencing work-home interaction in medical residents and highlight the impact of burnout on this interaction.

This was an analytical cross-sectional study including Tunisian medical residents during the period from September 1st, to December 31, 2022, through an online questionnaire created using Google Forms. This questionnaire included socio-demographic characteristics, occupational characteristics, Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to asses Burnout, SWING scale (Survey Work-home Interaction NijmeGen) to asses work-life interaction in residents. Statistical analysis were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences SPSS. The outcome variable in our study was the score of the SWING scale among residents. For each independent variable, the score of each dimension of the SWING questionnaire was calculated. The Student's T-test was used to compare means for qualitative variables and the Pearson correlation coefficient was used to measure linear correlation for quantitative variables. The significance level was set at 5%, and differences were considered significant for P<0.05.

During the study period, we interviewed 140 medical residents, with a mean age of 27.1±1.8 years with a predominance of female gender (67.8%). A proportion of 84.4% of the participants were single. Most of the participants in our study were first year residents (59.3%). According to the statistical analysis, socio-demographic factors influencing work life interaction were female gender, age, depression, and engaging in leisure activity while occupational factors influencing work life interaction were working in emergency department, a number of shifts≥7 shifts/month and emotional exhaustion according to the Maslach scale.

Appropriate corrective actions such as practicing leisure activities or restricting the number of shifts could improve work-home interaction in medical residents, and would help avoid harmful psychological and social consequences.