PHYSICIAN BURNOUT - AN EXAMINATION OF PERSONAL, PROFESSIONAL, AND ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

This study presents an empirical assessment of burnout among physician s in two staff model HMOs and examines the critical relationships betw een physician burnout and personal, professional, and organizational/w orklife factors. The authors hypothesize that a substantial proportion (>40%) of physicians will report high scores on emotional exhaustion, the key burnout dimension, and that high emotional exhaustion will be correlated with low evaluations of organizational/worklife factors. T he survey results found 58% of the physicians reported scores in high emotional exhaustion. Regression analyses established that organizatio nal measures, specifically, evaluative ratings of Workload/Scheduling and Input/Influence were the strongest predictors of emotional exhaust ion. The substantial proportion of physicians reporting scores high on the burnout dimensions, and the potential for management to intervene and improve the factors that foster burnout, suggests the need for or ganizations to examine the impact of their structures, policies, and p rocedures on physician stress and quality of worklife.