Original articleChanges in Burnout and Satisfaction With Work-Life Balance in Physicians and the General US Working Population Between 2011 and 2014
Section snippets
Patients and Methods
The 2014 survey used methods similar to those of the 2011 study.1 At both time points, we assessed a range of personal and professional characteristics as well as personal well-being in several dimensions (described below).
Well-being of US Physicians
Of the 35,922 physicians who received an invitation to participate, 6880 (19.2%) completed surveys. The demographic characteristics of participants relative to all 835,451 US physicians were generally similar, although participants were slightly older (Table 1). The 2014 participants were also similar to the 2011 participants (Supplemental Table 1, available online at http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org) other than a slight increase in women physicians (2011: 28.1%; 2014: 32.5%), consistent
Discussion
Burnout is a pervasive problem among physicians that appears to be getting worse. Our findings suggest a 10% increase in the prevalence of burnout among US physicians over the last 3 years. More than half of the US physicians in our survey had symptoms of burnout when assessed using the full MBI, with increased rates of burnout observed across all specialties. A substantial erosion in satisfaction with WLB has also been observed among US physicians over the past 3 years, despite no increase in
Conclusion
Burnout and satisfaction with WLB among US physicians are getting worse. American medicine appears to be at a tipping point with more than half of US physicians experiencing professional burnout. Given the extensive evidence that burnout among physicians has effects on quality of care, patient satisfaction, turnover, and patient safety, these findings have important implications for society at large.11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 There is an urgent need for systematic application of
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Grant Support: The work was supported by the Mayo Clinic Program on Physician Well-being.
Potential Competing Interests: Dr Shanafelt is co-inventor of the Physician Well-being Index.
Mayo Clinic holds the copyright on this technology and accordingly Mayo Clinic and Dr Shanafelt have a potential financial interest in this technology. The Physician Well-Being Index has been licensed to a commercial entity, although no royalties have been received to date.