The American College of Surgeons commissioned a self-reporting survey in June 2008 to measure burnout and quality of life among American surgeons. Researchers asked questions including emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment and others.
Just under 8000 out of the 25,000 surgeons responded to the survey, overall 40% of the respondents said they were burnout, 9% of those responded said having made a major medical mistake in the last 3 months. Researchers found that those who said they had made an error also showed more signs of depression and emotional exhaustion, however it was not clear whether the distress led to more errors or the errors caused more distress. They also found that the number of overnight calls and hours worked were not associated with the errors reported.
The results were published online on November 23 in the Annals of Surgery. The authors said that " although surgeons do not appear more likely to make errors than physicians in other disciplines, errors made by surgeons may have more severe consequences for patients due to the intereventional nature of surgical practice".
Sources: "Burnout and Medical Errors Among American Surgeons"Annals of Surgery (f/t via Athens)
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