Burnout driving physicians to cut down work hours

A new study found that high levels of burnout and low professional satisfaction scores predict a reduction in work levels. Learn more about which physicians are reducing their work hours and what is being done to improve professional satisfaction. Who is increasingly cutting hours Full-time physicians who report worsening burnout or show declining job satisfaction are more likely to reduce the hours they work, according to study published in April’s Mayo Clinic Proceedings. More than 1,800 Mayo Clinic physicians responded to a 2011 survey. For each one-point increase a physician had on a seven-point emotional exhaustion scale, there was a 43 percent higher likelihood that the physician would reduce his or her full-time employment over the next 24 months. Each one-point decrease in the five-point satisfaction score, meanwhile, led to a 34 percent higher likelihood a physician would reduce his or her hours, the study found. A longitudinal analysis at the physician level showed that full-time physicians who reported worsening burnout or declining satisfaction between 2011 and 2013 also were more likely to cut hours in the next 12 months. And it’s not the younger physicians who cut back hours. Between 2008 and 2014, there was a statistically significant increase in the proportion of men older than 55 who worked less than full time, a jump from 12.6 percent at the beginning of the study to 17.7 percent by the end of the study. The change was not statistically si...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news