Emotional exhaustion and burnout among medical professors; a nationwide survey

BACKGROUND: Although job-related burnout and its core feature emotional exhaustion are common among medical professionals and compromise job satisfaction and professional performance, they have never been systematically studied in medical professors, who have central positions in academic medicine. METHODS: We performed an online nationwide survey inviting all 1206 medical professors in The Netherlands to participate. They were asked to fill out the Maslach Burnout Inventory, a 'professional engagement' inventory, and to provide demographic and job-specific data. RESULTS: A total of 437 Professors completed the questionnaire. Nearly one quarter (23.8%) scored above the cut-off used for the definition of emotional exhaustion. Factors related to being in an early career stage (i.e. lower age, fewer years since appointment, having homeliving children, having a relatively low Hirsch index) were significantly associated with higher emotional exhaustion scores. There was a significant inverse correlation between emotional exhaustion and the level of professional engagement. CONCLUSIONS: Early career medical professors have higher scores on emotional exhaustion and may be prone for developing burnout. Based upon this finding, preventive strategies to prevent burnout could be targeted to young professors

Publication pressure and burn out among Dutch medical professors: a nationwide survey

BACKGROUND: Publication of scientific research papers is important for professionals working in academic medical centres. Quantitative measures of scientific output determine status and prestige, and serve to rank universities as well as individuals. The pressure to generate maximum scientific output is high, and quantitative aspects may tend to dominate over qualitative ones. How this pressure influences professionals' perception of science and their personal well-being is unknown. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We performed an online survey inviting all medical professors (n = 1206) of the 8 academic medical centres in The Netherlands to participate. They were asked to fill out 2 questionnaires; a validated Publication Pressure Questionnaire and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. In total, 437 professors completed the questionnaires. among them, 54% judge that publication pressure 'has become excessive', 39% believe that publication pressure 'affects the credibility of medical research' and 26% judge that publication pressure has a 'sickening effect on medical science'. The burn out questionnaire indicates that 24% of medical professors have signs of burn out. The number of years of professorship was significantly related with experiencing less publication pressure. Significant and strong associations between burn out symptoms and the level of perceived publication pressure were found. The main limitation is the possibility of response bias. CONCLUSION: A substantial proportion of medical professors believe that publication pressure has become excessive, and have a cynical view on the validity of medical science. These perceptions are statistically correlated to burn out symptoms. Further research should address the effects of publication pressure in more detail and identify alternative ways to stimulate the quality of medical science

Correction: Psychological Distress in the Hospital Setting: A Comparison between Native Dutch and Immigrant Patients.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0130961.]

Demographics.

<p>Demographics.</p

Univariate and Multivariate analysis comparing independent variables with the PPQ.

<p>Univariate and Multivariate analysis comparing independent variables with the PPQ.</p

General Additive Model-curve, demonstrating the association between the sum score on the validated 14-item publication pressure questionnaire, and the Emotional Exhaustion component of the burn out index, adjusted for gender to reduce residual confounding (Benedetti A and Abrahamowicz M).

<p>The dotted line represents the 95% Confidence interval.</p

Publication pressure questionnaire (PPQ).

<p>In <b>bold</b> the statements who are part of the validated questionnaire.</p>*<p>inversed questions; higher scores for disagreement.</p

Odds ratios for presence of psychological distress for immigrant patients versus native patients and first generation immigrant patients versus second generation immigrant patients.

<p>Odds ratios for presence of psychological distress for immigrant patients versus native patients and first generation immigrant patients versus second generation immigrant patients.</p