Burnout Leads to Premature Surgeon Retirement: A Nationwide Survey

Abstract

Background: Retirement of surgeons has important workforce implications given the shortage of surgeons throughout the country. Our study was designed to evaluate factors that influence surgeon retirement decisions. Material and methods:A paper-based survey regarding retirement decisions was mailed nationwide from April to June of 2018 to retired General, Colorectal, Vascular, and Cardiothoracic surgeons that are members of the American College of Surgeons.Results: A total of 2295 of 5282 surveys were completed (43.4% response rate). The mean age of respondents was 79.0 ± 0.8 years, their mean age of retirement was 63.9 ± 0.1 years, and their mean interval since retirement was 15.2 ± 0.9 years. The five most common reasons for retirement were advancing age, personal health, increased outside interference, burnout, and worsening malpractice environment. The most common reported health problems leading to retirement were musculoskeletal disorders. The percentage of reported burnout was significantly lower in academic surgeons (5.8%) vs. surgeons in private practice (10.5%); academic/private practice combination (10.0%); those employed by community hospital or health system (11.4%); and Veteran Affairs institution, military hospital, and Indian Health Service (13.8%). Burnout was the only factor associated with an earlier retirement age (61.2 ± 0.4 years vs. 65.8 ± 0.2 years in the absence of burnout). Results were comparable when stratified by surgical specialty. Conclusion:Our survey brings awareness to potentially-modifiable factors influencing surgeon retirement, such as

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on wellness among vascular surgeons

“…Before the pandemic, vascular surgeons appeared to be at a high risk for burnout, suicide, low career satisfaction, and quality of life [39] , [40] , [41] . Recognizing the association between surgeon burnout, patient outcomes, and workforce retention [42] , [43] , [44] , the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Wellness Taskforce was created in 2017 and was charged with assessing and addressing vascular surgeon burnout, with the aim of improving member wellness. In 2018, the Wellness Task Force disseminated a survey to the SVS society members to identify the prevalence of burnout, depression, and suicidal ideation among practicing vascular surgeons to guide future policy, advocacy, and member programs to support this workforce crisis.…”

Intraoperative teamwork and workload among surgeons and surgical trainees during DIEP flap surgery

“…Previous literature has shown that workrelated pain, discomfort, and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are prevalent among surgeons (Davis et al, 2014;Howarth et al, 2019;Wohlauer et al, 2021). These problems are associated with surgeon burnout and early retirement (Cimbak et al, 2019;Davila et al, 2019;Coleman et al, 2021;Wohlauer et al, 2021) and may discourage medical students from pursuing surgical careers (Sergesketter et al, 2019).…”

Introducing Exoskeletons into the Operating Room: A pilot study with vascular surgeons

“…Physical pain due to muscular fatigue has been shown to impact cognitive attentional resources (Stephenson et al, 2020) and decision-making (Koppel et al, 2017), potentially affecting surgical outcomes. In addition, 26% of retirees ended their careers owing to physical disabilities from work-related pain (Wohlauer et al, 2021) and high work-related physical pain and discomfort has been found to be highly correlated with burnout (Wohlauer et al 2021;Coleman et al, 2021;Cimbak et al, 2019). Further, musculoskeletal disorder/ergonomic issues were found to be a possible factor that deters medical students from surgical careers (Sergesketter et al, 2019).…”