Physician-Specific Symptoms of Burnout Compared to a Non-Physicians Group

Hermanas Usas, Sonja Weilenmann, Mary Princip, Walther J. Fuchs, Marc van Nuffel, Roland von Känel and Tobias R. Spiller ()
Additional contact information
Hermanas Usas: Department of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine, University Hospital Zurich (USZ), Haldenbachstrasse 16/18, CH-8091 Zurich, Switzerland
Sonja Weilenmann: Department of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine, University Hospital Zurich (USZ), Haldenbachstrasse 16/18, CH-8091 Zurich, Switzerland
Mary Princip: Department of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine, University Hospital Zurich (USZ), Haldenbachstrasse 16/18, CH-8091 Zurich, Switzerland
Walther J. Fuchs: Burnout Protector GmbH, CH-8700 Küsnacht, Switzerland
Marc van Nuffel: Burnout Protector GmbH, CH-8700 Küsnacht, Switzerland
Roland von Känel: Department of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine, University Hospital Zurich (USZ), Haldenbachstrasse 16/18, CH-8091 Zurich, Switzerland
Tobias R. Spiller: Department of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine, University Hospital Zurich (USZ), Haldenbachstrasse 16/18, CH-8091 Zurich, Switzerland

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 3, 1-8

Abstract: Physician burnout is a systemic problem in health care due to its high prevalence and its negative impact on professional functioning and individual well-being. While unique aspects of the physician role contributing to the development burnout have been investigated recently, it is currently unclear whether burnout manifests differently in physicians compared to the non-physician working population. We conducted an individual symptom analysis of burnout symptoms comparing a large sample of physicians with a non-physician group. In this cross-sectional online study, burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory—General Survey. We matched physicians with non-physicians regarding their age, gender, educational level, occupational status, and total burnout level using a “nearest neighbour matching” procedure. We then conducted a series of between-groups comparisons. Data of 3846 (51.0% women) participants including 641 physicians and 3205 non-physicians were analysed. The most pronounced difference was that physicians were more satisfied with their work performance (medium effect size (r = 0.343). Our findings indicate minor yet significant differences in burnout phenomenology between physicians and non-physicians. This demonstrates unique aspects of physician burnout and implies that such differences should be considered in occupational research among physicians, particularly when developing burnout prevention programs for physicians.

Keywords: burnout; physicians; fatigue; work stress; online survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/2693/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/2693/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:3:p:2693-:d:1055781

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().