Trainee doctors facing burn-out and exhaustion
A QUARTER of trainee doctors report feeling high levels of burn-out amid warnings that the stresses of the job are putting the safety of patients at risk.
A study by the medical regulator, the General Medical Council (GMC), found that 25 per cent of trainee doctors reported feeling burn-out to a high or very high degree, with two in five saying they find their work “emotionally exhausting”. The research also found nearly a third of trainees said they always or often feel exhausted in the morning at the thought of another day at work.
The GMC has today published a full review of its latest annual national training surveys, that collate the experiences of more than 70,000 doctors in training and senior doctors who act as trainers. The 2018 surveys asked doctors about burn-out for the first time.
The GMC’s chief executive, Charlie Massey, said: “Proportionally more doctors who feel unsupported at work with high workloads tell us they experience exhaustion and burnout. That can erode the quality of their training as well as potentially putting patients at risk. These warning signs must not be ignored.”
Burn-out is associated with high workloads, a lack of or diswhile ruption of time to train, and feeling unsupported, and can also affects trainees’ satisfaction with their medical education. Doctors in emergency medicine reported the highest rates of burn-out.
Nearly 74 per cent of emergency medicine trainees rated the intensity of their workload as either “heavy” or “very heavy”, and they reported feeling short of sleep at work more than any other speciality. Trainees who reported higher than average workloads and tiredness also included those who specialised in surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, and paediatrics.
Other areas of concern included that about one in six trainees said hand-over arrangements did not always ensure continuity of care between different clinical departments, while one in three said hand-overs were not used as learning opportunities, which GMC standards say they should be. The GMC has commissioned a UK-wide review into the causes of poor wellbeing faced by doctors. The findings will help the regulator to work with others to improve support and working conditions.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman insisted doctors are “the backbone of the NHS” and the Government “remains committed to supporting them in the workplace from the start of their careers”. He added there are 18,200 more doctors working in the NHS since 2010.