An innovative programme to track and address burnout in physician trainees

Background

There is a call to action for health care systems to assess and address burnout among physician trainees. To address this need for programmatic change, we developed a novel initiative to (1) proactively assess trainee burnout and identify drivers and (2) provide resources and recommendations for preventing and reducing burnout.

Approach

This pilot burnout tracking initiative began in 2020. A two-question burnout survey was disseminated to physician trainees at a hospital devoted exclusively to clinical research. The survey assessed burnout level and drivers of burnout. An algorithm was created to recommend action steps based on trainee responses. Participating training programmes completed a 23-question survey annually to provide information about their trainees and feedback.

Evaluation

Seven of 10 (70%) programmes completed the annual survey in the first year, and 12 of the 15 (80%) programmes completed it the second year. Reported average burnout levels and drivers of burnout varied across programmes; all drivers of burnout were cited as key drivers by at least one programme. Most programmes had conversations with their trainees and found these conversations helpful. All responding programmes who administered the trainee survey felt the initiative improved their ability to track and reduce burnout.

Implications

An initiative to systematically track burnout levels and offer targeted interventions was feasible and useful. This project can be a model for institution-wide efforts to address trainee burnout and extend to other clinical health care settings and academic medicine faculty.