This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Burnout rate greater than one-third among gastroenterologists
SAN DIEGO — The rate of burnout among gastroenterologists is 37%, with junior doctors facing higher likelihood of burnout than more senior doctors, Christina M. Surawicz, MD, MACG, said here during the annual meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology.
Surawicz discussed “Avoiding burnout: Finding balance between work and everything else” while delivering the J. Edward Berk Distinguished Lecture. She was introduced by outgoing ACG President Ronald J. Vender, MD, FACG, who had made concerns over stress and burnout a key part of his presidential address to open the meeting.
“Stress is inevitable, it’s how you manage it that I think makes a difference,” Surawicz explained.
Christina M. Surawicz
Among interventional gastroenterologists, in particular, younger, male, foreign-born doctors tended to have higher rates of burnout as they often worked longer and had fewer leisure hours, she said. Key areas of stress were procedure-related: fear of missing malignancy in endoscopic ultrasound, inability to cannulate the bile duct and misinterpreting fluoroscopic images, along with work-life balance, she said.
Among non-interventional gastroenterologists, stress was mostly related to worry about having their endoscopic skills questioned and pressure by nurses to perform their tasks more quickly, Surawicz said.
In hopes of reducing stress, Surawicz offered a number of potential strategies, including: attacking the schedule by taking a day off after travel before going back to work and deciding what time is sacred and honoring that; identifying and balancing professional and personal goals; creating flexible work hours; and letting go of frustrations.
“We do have an epidemic of burnout,” she said. “Our younger colleagues are at higher risk, and we need to mentor our juniors.”