A study of burnout and professional fulfilment among respiratory physicians (RP) in United Kingdom (UK)

Abstract

Background: General Medical Council survey (GMC, National Training Surveys 2018: Initial findings report) states that a quarter of medical trainees and over a fifth of trainers have reported burnout due to various reasons. Respiratory medicine is one of the more intense specialties in terms of workload and patient acuity. Aim: We aimed to study professional fulfilment (PF) and burnout among UK RP. Methods: 16-question survey, PF Index (PFI) as a validated tool (Trokel M, Bohman B et al. Academic Psychiatry 2018;42(1):11-24), was designed using Google Forms and sent to 14 deaneries across UK. Data was collected on RPs’ job role, age group, gender, job plan (i.e. general medicine (GIM) on-call commitment) and opinion on the leading causes of burnout. Results: 110 RP completed the survey. 43 (76.8%) consultants and 44 (91.7%) trainee registrars (TR) lacked professional fulfillment. 27 (48.2%) consultants and 26 (54.2%) TR were found to have burnout. All non-training registrars (n=6) were deficient of PF and had burnout. Participants rated Rota Gaps as the leading cause for burnout, while GIM on-call commitment and lack of respect from administrators were voted 2nd and 3rd respectively. Conclusion: Prevalence of burnout and scarcity of PF is much more profound among RP when comparing with similar studies in general medicine. Interestingly most of this is related to mandatory contribution to GIM on-calls than respiratory medicine and pose a threat to recruitment and retention. Ongoing rota gaps is a grave concern especially in wake of Brexit. We recommend running this survey on a wider forum to get thorough results and to take remedies against the leading causes.