Identification of Surgeon Burnout via a Single-Item Measure

Houdmont, J; Daliya, P; Adiamah, A; Theophilidou, E; Hassard, J; Lobo, D N; Ahmed, Jamil; Babu, Victor; Baker, Daryll; Bartlett, David; Beckingham, Ian; Bhatti, Imran; Brooks, Adam; Brown, Steven; Burke, Josh; Byrne, Hannah; Chetter, Ian; Cook, Hannah; Coulston, James; Cruddas, Lucinda; Dias, Richard; Dor, Frank; Dube, Mukul; Grant, Katherine; Hammond, John; Hargest, Rachel; Joachim, Theophilus; Joseph, Annie; Kara, Naveed; Karavias, Dimitrios; Kotecha, Sita; Kushairi, Anisa; Lal, Roshan; Lam, Kit; Lasrado, Irwin; Lee, Rachel; Mann, Gurminder; Mannu, George; Maxwell-Armstrong, Charles; McCaslin, James; McDermot, Frank; Miller, Andrew; Miller, Sarah; Morgan, Jenna; Nandhra, Sandip; Narayanasamy, Sangara; O’Brien, Patrick; Parry, Laura; Peters, Kizzie; Pitsika, Marina; Psaltis, Emmanouil; Sargen, Kevin; Sarmah, Panchali; Shyamsundar, Murali; Reddy, Chinnappa; Rollins, Katie; Roslan, Farah; Shalhoub, Joseph; Stanislas, Matt; Tan, Benjamin; Tewari, Nilanjana; Thomas, Pradeep; Thomas, Tony;...

Abstract

Background
Burnout is endemic in surgeons in the UK and linked with poor patient safety and quality of care, mental health problems, and workforce sustainability. Mechanisms are required to facilitate the efficient identification of burnout in this population. Multi-item measures of burnout may be unsuitable for this purpose owing to assessment burden, expertise required for analysis, and cost.

Aims
To determine whether surgeons in the UK reporting burnout on the 22-item Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) can be reliably identified by a single-item measure of burnout. Methods Consultant (n = 333) and trainee (n = 217) surgeons completed the MBI and a single-item measure of burnout. We applied tests of discriminatory power to assess whether a report of high burnout on the single-item measure correctly classified MBI cases and non-cases.

Results
The single-item measure demonstrated high discriminatory power on the emotional exhaustion burnout domain: the area under the curve was excellent for consultants and trainees (0.86 and 0.80), indicating high sensitivity and specificity. On the depersonalisation domain, discrimination was acceptable for consultants (0.76) and poor for trainees (0.69). In contrast, discrimination was acceptable for trainees (0.71) and poor for consultants (0.62) on the personal accomplishment domain.

Conclusions
A single-item measure of burnout is suitable for the efficient assessment of emotional exhaustion in consultant and trainee surgeons in the UK. Administered regularly, such a measure would facilitate the early identification of at-risk surgeons and swift intervention, as well as the monitoring of group-level temporal trends to inform resource allocation to coincide with peak periods.

Citation

Houdmont, J., Daliya, P., Adiamah, A., Theophilidou, E., Hassard, J., Lobo, D. N., …Young, L. (2022). Identification of Surgeon Burnout via a Single-Item Measure. Occupational Medicine, 72(9), 641-643. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqac116

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 5, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Oct 31, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-12
• Deposit Date: Nov 3, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 3, 2022
• Journal: Occupational Medicine
• Print ISSN: 0962-7480
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-8405
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 72
• Issue: 9
• Pages: 641-643
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqac116
• Keywords: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/13175942
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/occmed/article/72/9/641/6782930
• Additional Information: Burnout Study Group: Jamil Ahmed, Victor Babu, Daryll Baker, David Bartlett, Ian Beckingham, Imran Bhatti, Adam Brooks, Steven Brown, Josh Burke, Hannah Byrne, Ian Chetter, Hannah Cook, James Coulston, Lucinda Cruddas, Richard Dias, Frank Dor, Mukul Dube, Katherine Grant, John Hammond, Rachel Hargest, Theophilus Joachim, Annie Joseph, Naveed Kara, Dimitrios Karavias, Sita Kotecha, Anisa Kushairi, Roshan Lal, Kit Lam, Irwin Lasrado, Rachel Lee, Gurminder Mann, George Mannu, Charles Maxwell-Armstrong, James McCaslin, Frank McDermot, Andrew Miller, Sarah Miller, Jenna Morgan, Sandip Nandhra, Sangara Narayanasamy, Patrick O’Brien, Laura Parry, Kizzie Peters, Marina Pitsika, Emmanouil Psaltis, Kevin Sargen, Panchali Sarmah, Murali Shyamsundar, Chinnappa Reddy, Katie Rollins, Farah Roslan, Joseph Shalhoub, Matt Stanislas, Benjamin Tan, Nilanjana Tewari, Pradeep Thomas, Tony Thomas, Jim Tiernan, Giles Toogood, Karl Trimble, Peter Vauhan, Luke Wheldon, Steven White, Tim White, Imeshi Wijetunga, Michael Wilson, Rebecca Winterborn, Lynda Wyld, Lora Young.