Burnout Among Chinese Adult Reconstructive Surgeons: Incidence, Risk Factors, and Relationship With Intraoperative Irritability

Abstract

Background: Burnout is a major concern in human service occupations, mainly characterizing in emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. There is very limited research dealing with burnout in orthopedic surgeons. Exploring burnout prevalence, risk factors, and intraoperative irritability-related incidences is necessary to improve the quality of life for surgeons.

Methods: The study population consisted of 202 registered adult reconstructive doctors in China. Burnout was measured using a normalized translated version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Service Survey. Demographics, professional characteristics, and intraoperative irritability-related questions were also collected by electronic questionnaires. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 22.0.

Results: The overall rate of burnout was 85.1%. Variables significantly associated with high emotional exhaustion scores included poor sleeping time per day (P = .008), more nights on call per week (P = .048), and absence of research (P = .014). For depersonalization, absence of marriage (P < .001) and more nights on call per week (P < .001) were selected as risk factors. The incidence of losing temper in operation is 58.9%, significantly higher in senior surgeons (P = .001). Three major reasons for irritation during operations included delays by companies providing operative devices, poor coordination of assistants, and slow movements of instrument nurses. Intraoperative irritability was found to be significantly correlated with burnout, especially in emotional exhaustion. Residents were the population having the least opportunities to lose temper in operation.

Conclusion: Burnout is highly prevalent in Chinese adult reconstructive surgeons, and it had some correlations with irritability. Further research is needed to determine more risk factors and reduce intraoperative irritability-related incidences.

Keywords: Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Service Survey; arthroplasty; burnout; irritability; surgeons.