Daily and yearly burnout symptoms in Israeli shift work residents

Abstract

Burnout is a syndrome of physical and emotional exhaustion that develops among individuals who are open to public demands. In view of their heavy work load and sleep deprivation, we decided to evaluate the impact of long working hours on burnout and psychological status among a sample of residents during the first 2 years of their residency. Seventy-eight residents participated in the study, all residents completed self-administered questionnaires, and their sleep-wake cycle was monitored by a wrist-worn actigraph for a period of 5-7 days. The questionnaires included a short form suitable for Experience Sampling Method (ESM), and a longer background Questionnaire. The results revealed that sleep duration, Work Load and the interaction between them, explain the Negative Mood the day after the night shift. However, positive mood, and fatigue were not affected by sleep duration or workload. In general, after one year of residency, residents become more stressed, less involved in the job, and had a high level of burnout and psychosomatic symptoms. However, after the second year, the burnout symptoms were almost the same as at the beginning except for the level of stress that remained high. Sleep duration was unrelated to the burnout symptoms.