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Epidemiology
Burnout in gastroenterology registrars: a feasibility study conducted in the East of England using a 31-item questionnaire
  1. John Ong1,2,
  2. Carla Swift3,
  3. Sharon Ong4,5,
  4. Wan Yen Lim5,6,
  5. Yasseen Al-Naeeb3,
  6. Arun Shankar7
  1. 1Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  2. 2Department of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore
  3. 3Department of Gastroenterology, Bedford Hospital NHS Trust, Bedford, UK
  4. 4Department of Surgical Intensive Care, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
  5. 5Department of Surgical Intensive Care, Sengkang General Hospital, Singapore
  6. 6Department of Anaesthesia, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
  7. 7Department of Gastroenterology, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Norwich, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr John Ong; jo401{at}cam.ac.uk

Abstract

Objective The scale of burnout in UK gastroenterology trainees and the feasibility to determine its prevalence using the validated Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) tool are unknown. The primary objective of this region-wide pilot study was to evaluate the response rate to a 31-item questionnaire. The secondary objectives were to estimate the prevalence of burnout in gastroenterology trainees within the East of England deanery (EoE) and identify common stressors that trainees experience.

Design This was a cross-sectional study involving gastroenterology trainees from 16 hospitals across the EoE using a 31-item questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of the 22-item MBI-HSS and nine additional free-text questions. All gastroenterology trainees in the EoE were invited to complete the anonymised survey online. Data were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively.

Results The response rate for the survey was acceptable: 44.0% (40/91). 57.5% (23/40) of gastroenterology trainees reported emotional exhaustion. 23.5% (8/34) had depersonalisation and 63.9% (23/36) experienced low professional accomplishment. Burnout prevalence was 35.3% (12/34). 48.4% (15/31) of gastroenterology trainees were aware of professional support services within EoE. Stressors related to service requirements (eg, workload, staffing levels) and professional relationships with colleagues and patients were commonly reported: 65.6% and 25.0%, respectively.

Conclusions It is feasible to use a 31-item questionnaire in a national cohort of UK gastroenterology trainees for future burnout studies. Burnout in EoE gastroenterology trainees was high and this may reflect a national prevalence within the specialty. More extensive studies, greater awareness of burnout and improved access to professional support services are required.

  • health service research
  • screening
  • quality of life
  • psychological stress
  • psychology
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgast-2020-000401

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors Conceptualisation: JO; design: all authors; data curation: JO and CS; data analysis: all authors; manuscript preparation: JO, CS and WYL; revisions: JO, CS, SO and YA-N; critical edits and supervision: AS.

    • Funding JO is funded by the W.D. Armstrong Doctoral Research Training Fellowship at the University of Cambridge and a Development Grant from the National University of Singapore.

    • Disclaimer This research was not funded; however, communications and access to literature were provided by the University of Cambridge.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information.