Structural Factors Driving Burnout in Medicine: A Study of Pediatric Surgeons

Principal Investigator: Tania Jenkins, PhD

While research on wellbeing and satisfaction in medicine has increased exponentially over the last ten years, much of this research has emphasized individual-level causes and interventions. Yet, individual-level approaches do little to address the broader structural factors that may be shaping physician satisfaction and wellbeing. A 2019 National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) consensus study called for more research taking a more systemic approach to clinician burnout, but to date, no available study has comprehensively considered how these factors shape physicians’ everyday experience.

This study compared two specialties (pediatrics and pediatric surgery) to investigate:

• How do societal- and institutional-level factors (factors external to the profession) work together to shape physicians’ professional satisfaction and wellbeing?
• How do factors internal to the profession, such as training structures and specialty cultures, interact with external societal and institutional pressures to shape physicians’ satisfaction and wellbeing?
• And how do societal, institutional, and professional factors affect physicians’ satisfaction and wellbeing across the career span?