APM viewsPredicting and preventing physician burnout: results from the United States and the Netherlands☆
Section snippets
Samples
Methods of the U.S.(5)and the Dutch (6)physician surveys are described elsewhere. In brief, the U.S. Physician Worklife Study (PWS) aimed to determine factors in work life associated with job satisfaction, stress, burnout, and intention to leave the practice. For the study, 5,700 physicians were surveyed after random selection from the American Medical Association masterfile, with stratification based on specialty, ethnicity, and regional penetration of managed care. There were 2,356
Physician samples and burnout prevalence
Dutch and U.S. respondents were similar in age, presence of children, and work hours (Table 1). There were more U.S. female physicians, in part due to the number of U.S. pediatricians. The Dutch sample included more academic physicians as well as more technical and procedural physician specialties. Burnout prevalence was approximately 22% in the United States. In the Dutch sample, 11% of respondents felt burned out by their work once a week or more; an additional 9% felt burned out a few times
Discussion
From this exploratory comparison of data from more than 3,000 physicians, we have derived a burnout model with a close fit to the data in two countries. The model’s background variables exert their effects on burnout through the mediating variables of work control, work-home interference, and home support. These mediators result in job stress and satisfaction, which, in conjunction with work-home interference, relate directly to physician burnout. To our knowledge, this model is the first to be
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Supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as well as by the Dutch Disability Insurance Company MOVIR, the University of Wisconsin Medical School Department of Medicine, and the University of Wisconsin National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health.
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Other members of the SGIM CSSG include T. Robert Konrad, PhD and Donald E. Pathman, MD, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Eric S. Williams, PhD, Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Mark D. Schwartz, MD, New York, New York; John Frey, MD, Jeffrey Douglas, PhD, and William E. Scheckler, MD, Madison, Wisconsin; Kathleen Nelson, MD, Birmingham, Alabama; Martha Gerrity, MD, PhD, Portland, Oregon; JudyAnn Bigby, MD, Boston, Massachusetts; Richard Shugerman, MD, Seattle Washington; David Karlson, PhD, and Elnora Rhodes, Washington, DC.