Abstract
Purpose :
To determine the percentage of faculty members, trainees, and staff that experience burnout at a large tertiary eye center
Methods :
The study was given an exemption by the University of Michigan IRB committee. We employed a well-validated single-item burnout measure consisting of a five ordinal scale response anonymized on Qualtrics and sent it to ,Faculty members, Trainees (residents and fellows), Staff members. A list of resources available to the respondent were then listed at the end of the survey. Results were dichotomized as no symptoms of burnout (1 or 2 on the scale) and at least one symptom of burnout (3 to 5 on the scale). Three months later, the survey was sent again to the three groups with the additional question asked of which, if any, resource was used. Statistical analysis was performed on Graphpad Prism and Stata.
Results :
This single item burnout measure had response rates of about around 40% in the initial (43% for faculty, 47% for trainee, and 41% for staff) and subsequent (44% for faculty, 38% for trainee, and 32% for staff) surveys. Of the 224 initial responses, the majority of faculty (55%), trainees (57%), and staff (66%) exhibited at least 1 symptom of burnout without a statistical difference between these groups (X2 = 2.11, p=0.35). These burnout levels were almost twice those previously reported in ophthalmology. When surveyed a second time, 187 responses were gathered with the majority of faculty (60%), trainees (71%), and staff (66%) exhibiting at least 1 symptoms of burnout without a statistical difference between these groups (X2 = 0.78, p=0.68). 46% of faculty members, 12% of trainees, and 40% of staff engaged in a resource. However, there was no statistical difference in burnout responses between the initial and subsequent surveyed groups (p=0.61 for faculty, p=0.39 for trainees, and p=0.95 for staff) nor between the sub-groups that used and did not use a resource (p=0.51 for faculty, p=0.87 for trainees, and p=0.51 for staff).
Conclusions :
These findings demonstrate an increased participation rate with a single-item survey and is the first to assess ophthalmology staff burnout levels. Furthermore, this study shows increased rates of burnout in ophthalmology compared to levels previously reported before COVID-19. However, burnout rates were comparable on survey follow-up three months later despite a significant proportion of individuals engaging in a resource aimed at addressing burnout.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.