Doctor burnout and compassion fatigue rising, survey suggests
28/01/2020
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Up to a third of doctors have high levels of burnout and compassion fatigue, according to the findings of a major survey published today.
The survey showed high levels of burnout among emergency medicine doctors and high levels of compassion fatigue among GPs.
GPs were also found to have less personal resilience than hospital doctors, according to the report in BMJ Open.
Foundation doctors and staff and associate specialist grade doctors were also found to have lower levels of resilience than others.
Some 1,651 doctors took part in a survey circulated through medical royal colleges and other professional bodies during the autumn.
Just 87 respondents showed low scores for burnout and stress and high scores for compassion satisfaction. And 120 had exceptionally high scores for burnout, stress and compassion fatigue.
The researchers found that doctors had poor coping mechanisms. Self-blame was a common response whilst trying to plan how to deal with a situation was less common.
Doctors in Northern Ireland had more resilience than most and often drew on religious belief to help themselves.
Some 31% were found to be suffering from burnout and 31% were found to be suffering compassion fatigue.
The project was led from Northern Ireland by Dr Nicola McKinley, of the Ulster Hospital, Dundonald.
The researchers write: “Doctors cannot be expected to recover from the emotional stress and adversity they encounter in their role as clinicians while managing a heavy workload in an under-funded, over-worked system.
“It is unlikely that emotional resilience is all that is required to cope with increasing regulation, litigation, and administration.”
Resilience, burnout and coping mechanisms in UK doctors: a cross-sectional study. BMJ Open 28 January 2020; doi 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-031765
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-031765
