Job burnout in 159 anesthesiology trainees

Background: Anesthesiology may be stressful and most anesthesiologists develop mechanisms for coping. However, inexperienced trainee anesthesiologists seem to be vulnerable. We studied stress perception and job burnout in trainee anesthesiologists.

Methods: Responses to perceived stress scale (PSS) and Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) were evaluated in 159 trainee anesthesiologists.

Results: In our results, when perceived stress was increased, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization increased but personal accomplishment decreased, as expected. Perceived stress was very high in the early years of training. There was a negative correlation between age and emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, but positive correlation with personal accomplishment. Female anesthesiologists had higher personal accomplishment, but lower depersonalization points than male anesthesiologists in our study. There was no statistical association between marital status, PSS, and MBI; ≥2 children group had a significant high personal accomplishment but low depersonalization and emotional exhaustion scores. Line regression analysis showed a statistically significant relationship between PSS and emotional exhaustion and between age and depersonalization.

Conclusions: Social factors such as gender and number of children affect the work life of our trainees.