Burnout in the Urology Workforce: Voluntary Survey Results in the United States

Introduction:Burnout among urologists is significant with studies estimating approximately 40% meet the criteria for burnout. This study sought to survey practicing urologists to identify factors associated with burnout and its implications.Methods:A 16-question survey was created on SurveyMonkey.com and distributed to urologists by email via their American Urological Association section. Descriptive statistics and chi-square testing were used for analysis, and logistic regression was used for multivariate analysis to assess factors associated with burnout.Results:There were 466 respondents of whom 460 were actively practicing. In all, 78% of respondents reported burnout with 45% reporting it as either moderate or severe. Respondents were 90% male and 41% fellowship trained. Females tended to report worse burnout with 4 times greater likelihood to report severe burnout on multivariate analysis (p=0.01). There was also a difference in reasons cited for burnout among genders. Females most often cited lack of personal time (51%) while males most often complained about insurance and regulations (62%). Initial analysis did not show a difference based on fellowship. Multivariate analysis revealed a possible protective role of fellowship training with nonfellowship trained urologists twice as likely to report moderate burnout (p=0.017).Conclusions:A large number of urologists are experiencing burnout. This affects patient interaction and planned time to retirement. Most urologists do not have interventions in place to assess or prevent/change their levels of burnout. Further investigation and intervention aimed at physician wellness need to occur to prevent the worsening of this trend.