The majority of trauma surgeons are not satisfied with their work–life balance, according to results of a recent, presented at the 2020 virtual annual meeting of the American Society for the Surgery of Trauma.
Findings of the survey, completed by nearly 300 AAST members, showed that 57% of trauma surgeons were dissatisfied with their work–life balance. Furthermore, this lack of equilibrium appears to be contributing to an alarming rate of burnout among trauma surgeons (abstract 50).
In his presentation, Carlos V.R. Brown, MD, reported that trauma surgeons with poor work–life balance had nearly twice the rate of burnout (77% vs. 39%), and 61% of trauma surgeons overall were burned out.
“The lack of work–life balance for trauma surgeons and the high rate of burnout are very concerning findings,” said Dr. Brown, a professor of surgery and the chief of acute care surgery at Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin. “However, we identified several modifiable factors that were associated with good work–life balance, and work–life balance in general.”
Having hobbies, a healthy diet and exercising regularly were all shown to be independently associated with satisfying work–life balance in a logistic regression analysis. The most important modifiable factor appeared to be vacation time off.
“Nearly everyone surveyed was allotted a standard four weeks’ vacation,” Dr. Brown said. “While trauma surgeons in the good work–life balance group actually took four weeks off, however, those reporting bad work–life balance only took three of those allotted weeks.”
According to Dr. Brown, trauma surgeons must take personal responsibility for many of these modifiable factors and prioritize a healthier lifestyle. For factors like vacation time, however, trauma leaders could help enforce policies that benefit surgical teams in the long run. This also means spending more awake hours at home.
“At our institution, the culture is not to stay at work if you don’t have work to do,” Dr. Brown noted. “It’s important to go home and take care of the things that you need to do as a person to maintain your stability.”
In addition, fair compensation was associated with satisfying work–life balance.
“Trauma surgeons don’t necessarily need to be paid more money,” Dr. Brown said, “but they need to feel fairly compensated for what they do.”
Dr. Brown acknowledged several limitations to the study, including a response rate of only 21%. Because they collect self-reported answers, survey studies are also subject to response bias, he said. The biggest limitation is the inability to determine cause and effect.
“Do dieting, exercise, having hobbies and taking vacation lead to better work–life balance or does having a better work–life balance allow you the opportunity to do these things?” he said. “All we can say is there’s an association between work–life balance and these variables.”
Dr. Brown and his colleagues are planning to perform a subgroup analysis to see if there are age- and sex-related variables associated with better work–life balance.
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