Background: Physician burnout and wellbeing are an ongoing concern. Limited research has reported on the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on burnout among U.S. physicians.
Methods: We surveyed U.S. frontline physicians at two time points (wave one in May-June 2020 and wave two in Dec 2020-Jan 2021) using a validated burnout measure. The survey was emailed to a national stratified random sample of family physicians, internists, hospitalists, intensivists, emergency medicine physicians, and infectious disease physicians. Burnout was assessed with the Professional Fulfillment Index Burnout Composite scale (PFI-BC). Quantile regression was used to estimate the change in median PFI-BC scales, adjusting for physician, geographic, and pandemic covariates.
Results: Overall, 38.1% of 286 respondents reported PFI-BC scores consistent with burnout in wave one, and 33.1% of 262 respondents in wave two. Burnout declined or was unchanged among all specialties surveyed apart from hospitalists. 34.2% of primary care physicians reported burnout in wave one and 29.7% in wave two. Burnout declined among critical care (53.5% to 43.1%) and emergency physicians (50.6% to 44.5%); but hospitalist burnout rates increased (27% to 44.2%).
Conclusions: Rates of physician burnout during the first year of the pandemic appear to be comparable to pre-pandemic rates. We found no evidence of increasing burnout over a six month period, apart from hospitalist respondents. Impacts of the ongoing pandemic on physician burnout warrant continued research.