Children, care, career – a cross-sectional study on the risk of burnout among German hospital physicians at different career stages

Abstract

BackgroundWith the increasing number of female medical students physicians’ need for work-life balanced hospital jobs rises at all career stages. The Working Time Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz, ArbZG), an implementation of the European Working Time Directive into German law in 2004, should have improved the general conditions for creating flexible work. Nevertheless, the vast majority of female physicians still report an incompatibility of work and family. So far, little is known about mothers working on leading positions in the medical field. The presented study focuses on gender differences in the level of emotional exhaustion between child-rearing junior and senior physicians and different predictors of burnout.MethodsThree years after the ArbZT-enactment, 994 physicians from the listed hospital physicians in the Medical Register of the city of Hamburg participated in the cross-sectional study and completed a 60-item questionnaire (return rate of 46,5%). The questionnaire included a 22-item version of the German translation of the Maslach Burnout Inventory whereat emotional exhaustion was interpreted as the crucial predictor of burnout. Results of an univariate covariance analysis and regression analyses are reported.ResultsIn the level of emotional exhaustion no gender differences were found between junior and senior physicians with children in the overall analysis. Support by the superior was the only overall predictor of burnout. Female senior physicians having children presented the highest risk of burnout. Only in this group parenting contributed significantly to the risk of burnout.ConclusionsSupport by the superior and the relationship to colleagues are generally important predictors of burnout among hospital physicians. Parenthood only gets a crucial influence on psychomental health for female senior physicians. Still conservative role models are common in this group, thus dealing with the triple burden of work, leadership responsibility and child rearing seems to be a special female challenge. Innovative approaches of human resource policy need to be implemented to improve the reconciliation of family and working life.

Evaluation of Burnout Levels of the Academic Staff and Research Assistants Working at Medical Faculties

“…When the participants of the study were grouped according to marital status it was seen that married physicians had significantly lower mean EE and D scores than those of single physicians, while their mean PA scores were significantly higher. Many studies conducted on the subject found no statistically significant differences between marital status variables and the mean scores for the sub-dimensions of burnout (6,7,8,(11)(12)(13)(14)(15). Some studies found that married ones had statistically significant lower mean EE and D scores than singles while their mean PA scores were found statistically higher, in line with the results of our study (9,16,17).…”

“…When the term of employment was taken into consideration, it was found that those who had been working for 21 or more years had significantly lower mean emotional exhaustion and depersonalization scores than those who had been working for [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] years and 0-10 years, while their mean personal achievement scores were significantly higher than those who had been working for 11-20 years and 0-10 years. Some studies found no statistically significant differences between the term of employment and the mean scores for the sub-dimensions of burnout (11,13).…”

Arbeitsbedingungen und psychische Gesundheit bei sozialversicherungspflichtig beschäftigten Ärzten: Ein bundesweiter Vergleich mit einer repräsentativen Beschäftigtenstichprobe

“…Befunde aus internationalen Überblicksarbeiten, die auf Ärzte als Hochrisikogruppe für Depression hinweisen [23], lassen sich nicht direkt auf die untersuchte Grundgesamtheit der Ärzte in Deutschland übertragen. Ebenso ist ein direkter Vergleich mit Studienergebnissen aus Deutschland [8][9][10][11][12][13] nicht möglich, da die Methodik der Stichprobenziehung, die Auswahl der Datenerhebungsinstrumente und der Vergleichsgruppen zu sehr von der vorliegenden Studie abweichen.…”

“…Der Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) wurde in einer Erhebung bei Krankenhausärzten in 2 Krankenhäusern in NRW genutzt [11]. Richter et al [12] nutzten ein Ärzteregister der Stadt Hamburg für eine postalische Befragung zu Arbeitsbedingen und Symptomen des Burnout.…”

Securing the Continuity of Medical Competence in Times of Demographic Change: A Proposal

“…This generation has high demands for the material equipment and flexibility of the work. Another aspiration is the higher importance of family and the growing wish of young men to relinquish their traditional role of “breadwinner” and to experience their fatherhood [29,30]. However, it is not men, but rather women, who represent the future majority of medical staff.…”