Burnout Amongst Lebanese Physicians: A Nationwide Retrospective Study

Abstract

Introduction: The medical field holds several challenges in the face of a doctor; be it the workload along with the demanding daily tasks, the stressful situations faced on a daily basis, the deaths and the sufferance of their, in addition to socioeconomic factors and stressful life events that accompany a doctor throughout the way. Therefore, physicians are at risk of developing burnout syndrome at any point in their career. This is however influenced by many factors including working in a private or university hospital, the number of hours worked per week, the specialty, among others; and it eventually reflects differently on physicians. Consequences range from unhealthy adopted coping mechanisms, anxiety at work place, which will in turn compromise the quality of patient care provided, depersonalization, decision to quit and also suicide. Methodology: At our institution we conducted a literature review using PubMED and SCOPUS online databases. We used the physician burnout questionnaire in order to assess burnout among physicians in Lebanon that was sent via LOP to physicians around Lebanon. Result: We found out that the highest rates of burnout were reported by almost all specialties, mainly the internal medicine, emergency medicine, surgical and family medicine specialties, moreover exhaustion and loss of expectations were directly associated with burnout, other variables contributed with less significance with the presence of Burnout among our respondants. Conclusion: Taking care of physician’s mental health ensures safety and comfort of the patients. It is crucial to look after the well-being of the ones who form the cornerstone of a well-structured health system. Funding Information: No funding was offered. Declaration of Interests: There is no conflict of interest for any of the authors. Ethics Approval Statement: Ethics approval and consent to participate: study was approved by the IRB committee at Lebanese American University Medical Center and the ethics committee at the Lebanese Order of Physicians.