Determinants of Burnout Among Transplant Surgeons: A National Survey in the United States

Abstract

Burnout is a response to chronic strain within the workplace characterized by feelings of inefficacy (reduced personal accomplishment), cynicism (depersonalization) and emotional exhaustion. The purpose of this study was to report prevalence and explore organizational and interpersonal contributors of burnout in transplant surgeons. We performed a national cross‐sectional survey of 218 transplant surgeons on sociodemographics, professional characteristics, frequency of difficult patient interactions and comfort in dealing with difficult patient interactions, decisional authority, psychological job demands, supervisor and coworker support, with burnout as the outcome. 40.1% reported high levels of emotional exhaustion, 17.1% reported high levels of depersonalization and 46.5% reported low personal accomplishment. Greater emotional exhaustion was predicted by lower decisional authority, higher psychological work demands, and lower coworker support. Greater discomfort with difficult patient interactions and lower coworker support predicted depersonalization. Lastly, lower decisional authority, lower coworker support, less frequent difficult patient interactions but greater discomfort with difficult patient interactions predicted lower personal accomplishment. The findings of this study show that unsupportive environments with little decisional control and high work‐related demands contribute to the development of burnout in transplant surgeons. Implications for interventions aimed at prevention of burnout in transplant surgeons are discussed.

Transplant community perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of alternative quality metrics for regulation

“…Our estimated response rates range from 2.8% to 4.0%, but do not account for the unknown numbers of incorrect emails, emails blocked by spam filters, or potential recipients who did not read the AST newsletter. While our sample size of 270 is consistent with other national surveys of the transplant community (range 83‐449), the response rate of these prior surveys was higher as they used a simpler sampling scheme (range 18%‐46%) . Despite this, respondents to this survey reported working in centers with a wide range of annual transplant volumes (Table ).…”

“…While our sample size of 270 is consistent with other national surveys of the transplant community (range 83-449), the response rate of these prior surveys was higher as they used a simpler sampling scheme (range 18%-46%). 19,20 Despite this, respondents to this survey reported working in centers with a wide range of annual transplant volumes (Table 2). Second, all surveys have the potential to be affected by response bias if those with stronger opinions or a particular viewpoint are more likely to respond.…”

The Abdominal Transplant Surgery Workforce: Current state and future trends

“…Workforce concerns are reflected in the annual anguish experienced by fellowship graduates seeking transplant positions and surgeon burnout. Transplant surgeons have high burnout rates secondary to little decisional control and high work‐related demands . Reich et al forecast that there will be no shortage of transplant surgeons until 2020, but suggested further need of robust surveys.…”

The effect of an organ procurement experience on preclinical medical student perceptions of transplant surgery

“…7 Burnout and distress remain significant issues for surgeons in general, 14,15 and transplant surgeons in particular. 16 Recent studies indicate rates of self-reported emotional exhaustion are between 38%-40% among transplant surgeons, 17,18 and 77% of thoracic transplant fellows rated thoracic transplant as a less than favorable profession. 19 Among our pre-and post-procurement respondents, only 16% and 13% of individuals, respectively, were comfortable with the call schedule of a transplant surgeon, and only 12% and 19%, respectively, "agreed" or "strongly agreed" that transplant surgeons have a high quality of life.…”