Burnout Among Urologists from Denmark and Michigan

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of burnout among Danish and American urologists. Methods: An email invitation was sent with 2 reminders spaced by 14 days intervals to members of the Danish Urological Association and urologists at the University of Michigan to participate in a survey consisting of the 2 item Maslach Burnout Inventory. Burnout was defined as reporting “once a week,” “a few times a week,” or “everyday” on either the emotional exhaustion or depersonalization domains of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Two open-ended questions were added to the survey for the Danish urologists, these were then qualitatively analyzed using thematic analysis. Categorial variables were compared using Chi square analysis. Results: The response rate was 193 of 387 (49.9%) for the Danish urologists and 43 of 64 (67.1%) among American urologists. The prevalence of burnout for the American and Danish cohorts was identified in 4 (44.4%) of the American residents and 10 (32.3%) of the American attendings compared to 2 (3%) of Danish residents and 16 (12.7%) of Danish attendings. The difference in rate of burnout between Danish residents and attendings was statistically significant (P=.03). Burnout was statistically significantly different between American and Danish residents (P