Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Mar;63(608):e217-24.
doi: 10.3399/bjgp13X664270.

Burnout among French GPs in training: a cross-sectional study

Eric Galam  1 , Valériane Komly, Antoine Le Tourneur, Jérôme Jund
Affiliations

Burnout among French GPs in training: a cross-sectional study

Eric Galam et al. Br J Gen Pract. 2013 Mar.

Abstract

Background: French GPs in training have an important role in making hospitals function and are the future workforce, however burnout among this group is not uncommon.

Aim: To assess burnout among French trainees.

Design and setting: Descriptive, epidemiological, transverse cross-sectional study in France.

Method: All 6309 French trainees attending a meeting to choose their next 6-month placement (March 2011), were invited to complete a written questionnaire including the Maslach Burnout Inventory, items about their health, and how they felt about medical internship.

Results: A total of 4050 anonymous questionnaires were analysed (response rate: 64.2%). The percentage of trainees with high levels of emotional exhaustion was 16.0%, 33.8% had a high score for depersonalisation, and 38.9% had a high score for low personal accomplishment. A total of 41.9% had no high score at all and 6.5% (n = 283) presented three high scores. Notable associations were found between burnout and workload, lack of acknowledgement for trainees' work, working in accident and emergency departments, and lack of time devoted to private life.

Conclusion: This is the first French national survey about burnout in French GP trainees. It confirms the findings of previous French regional studies, which showed an increased rate of depersonalisation but decreased rates of emotional exhaustion. Trainees play an important role in the French health system: they represent tomorrow's doctors, so these results are worrying for the French public-health system. They imply a need for action by doctors, professional bodies, and healthcare organisations. A few preventive measures could be tested, such as creating an employment contract for trainees, helping trainees to assume responsibilities step by step, and putting more thought into training in outpatient clinics.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Burnout syndrome score results.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Galam E, Souffrir de soigner Une pathologie du travail et de la relation [Occupational pathology and pathology of the relationship]. Le Concours médical Tome. 2008;130(8):394–397.
    1. Orton P, Orton C, Pereira Gray D. Depersonalised doctors: a cross-sectional study of 564 doctors, 760 consultations and 1876 patient reports in UK general practice. BMJ Open. 2012;2:e000274. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Maslach C, Jackson S, Leiter MP. MBI: The Maslach Burnout Inventory manual. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press; 1996.
    1. Schaufeli WB, Bakker AB, Hoogduin K, et al. On the clinical validity of the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Burnout Measure. Psychol Health. 2001;16(5):565–582. - PubMed
    1. Dyrbye LN, Thomas MR, Harper W, et al. The learning environment and medical student burnout: a multicentre study. Med Educ. 2009;43(3):274–282. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources