Career Satisfaction and Burnout in Academic Hospital Medicine

Abstract

T he number of hospitalists in academic medical centers has grown rapidly, producing a field with few senior members, potentially impeding the academic success and career sustainability of academic hospitalists, not to mention contributing to burnout. 1 However, little is known about career promotion, job satisfaction, stress, and rates of burnout in academic hospital medicine or how these factors affect scholarly success and productivity.Methods.We performed a cross-sectional 61-question e-mail survey of hospitalists at 20 academic medical centers in the United States.Hospital medicine faculty at each site were identified via their group leader; members of each group then received an e-mail survey up to 5 times.Burnout was assessed using the previously validated question:Using your own definition of "burnout," select one of the following: 1="I have no symptoms of burnout," 2="I don't always have as much energy as I once did, but I don't feel burned out," 3="I am definitely burning out and have one or more symptoms of burnout, such as physical and emotional exhaustion," 4="The symptoms of burnout that I am experiencing won't go away," 5="I feel completely burned out and wonder if I can go on."A score of 3 or higher was consistent with burnout.