Determinants of burnout among transplant surgeons: a national survey in the United States

Authors

Michelle T. Jesse, Henry Ford HealthFollow
Marwan S. Abouljoud, Henry Ford HealthFollow
Anne EshelmanFollow

Recommended Citation

Jesse MT, Abouljoud M, Eshelman A. Determinants of burnout among transplant surgeons: a national survey in the United States. Am J Transplant. 2015 Mar;15(3):772-8.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-1-2015

Publication Title

American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons

Abstract

Burnout is a response to chronic strain within the workplace characterized by feelings of inefficacy (reduced personal accomplishment), cynicism (depersonalization) and emotional exhaustion. The purpose of this study was to report prevalence and explore organizational and interpersonal contributors of burnout in transplant surgeons. We performed a national cross-sectional survey of 218 transplant surgeons on sociodemographics, professional characteristics, frequency of difficult patient interactions and comfort in dealing with difficult patient interactions, decisional authority, psychological job demands, supervisor and coworker support, with burnout as the outcome. 40.1% reported high levels of emotional exhaustion, 17.1% reported high levels of depersonalization and 46.5% reported low personal accomplishment. Greater emotional exhaustion was predicted by lower decisional authority, higher psychological work demands, and lower coworker support. Greater discomfort with difficult patient interactions and lower coworker support predicted depersonalization. Lastly, lower decisional authority, lower coworker support, less frequent difficult patient interactions but greater discomfort with difficult patient interactions predicted lower personal accomplishment. The findings of this study show that unsupportive environments with little decisional control and high work-related demands contribute to the development of burnout in transplant surgeons. Implications for interventions aimed at prevention of burnout in transplant surgeons are discussed.

Comments

Erratum published 22 March 2016: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajt.13780

Due to an error in the scoring manual, the categorization of high, moderate or low personal accomplishment is reversed in Table 2 on page 774.

The correct numbers are:

On page 775, the final sentence of the first paragraph should be “Unfortunately, despite an apparent increase in feelings of personal accomplishment over the last decade, a significant proportion (24.0%) of transplant surgeons continue to report low levels of personal accomplishment.”

Medical Subject Headings

Transplant and Abdominal Surgery

PubMed ID

25676165

Volume

15

Issue

3

First Page

772

Last Page

778