A survey of thousands of physician residents and fellows across the U.S. shows that “50% reported symptoms of burnout in 2023, a drop from the 60.3% burnout rate found in a similar survey led by the same research team in 2012.”
The burnout rate reported in the study for practicing physicians was 45.2%, which also represents an improvement. Despite the improvement in numbers, “researchers found that residents and fellows were at higher risk for occupational burnout when compared with similarly aged workers in other fields.” However, “physicians in residency and fellowship training were less likely to report symptoms of moderate or severe depression than were those in the rest of the workforce.” Practicing physicians were also recorded as being more likely to be “satisfied with work-life integration than were residents and fellows.”
According to the AMA, the results of this survey can be used to “help guide healthcare organizations and residency and fellowship programs as they work to address the systemic factors that affect well-being for physicians in training.”
The authors of the resultant study noted that “duty-hour limits and well-being initiatives for residents and fellows have resulted in improvements over the years.” Residents and fellows “reported working an average of 60 hours a week, or 10 hours more each week than practicing physicians did. Additionally, 30.1% of residents and fellows and 11.1% of practicing physicians worked more than 70 hours a week.”
