Association of clinical specialty with resident burnout, career choice regret

Editor's Note

Symptoms of burnout and career choice regret were prevalent in resident physicians but varied substantially by specialty, this study fines.

In this prospective analysis of 3,588 second-year residents, symptoms of burnout occurred in 45.2% and career choice regret occurred in 14.1%. There were wide differences of prevalence by specialty, ranging from 29.6% to 63.8% for burnout and 7.4% to 32.7% for career choice regret.

In multivariate analysis, urology, neurology, emergency medicine, and general surgery were associated with higher risks for burnout than internal medicine. Symptoms of burnout and clinical specialty were both significantly associated with career choice regret. Female gender also was independently associated with higher risks for burnout.

More research is needed to better understand these differences and issues, the authors note.