Perfectionism as a predictor of physician burnout

Summary & key facts

Researchers surveyed 69 pediatric doctors at one U.S. children’s hospital network during the COVID-19 period to see if perfectionism links to burnout. About four in ten doctors reported high levels of either emotional exhaustion (feeling drained) or depersonalization (feeling impersonal or distant from patients). Doctors who scored higher on self-critical perfectionism — the habit of harshly judging themselves when they make mistakes — tended to have higher emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. The study also found that lower conscientiousness (being less organized and dependable) related to more emotional exhaustion, and lower agreeableness (being less cooperative or warm) related to

Key facts:

• Sixty-nine pediatric physicians took part in the study. They completed surveys between August 2020 and February 2021.
• About 42% of those doctors reported high levels of either emotional exhaustion (feeling worn out by work) or depersonalization (feeling impersonal or distant from patients).
• Higher self-critical perfectionism — a tendency to strongly blame oneself for mistakes and assume others expect perfection — predicted higher emotional exhaustion and higher depersonalization.
• Lower conscientiousness, which means being less organized or reliable, predicted higher emotional exhaustion.
• Lower agreeableness, which means being less cooperative or warm with others, predicted higher depersonalization.
• The study was cross-sectional, used doctors from a single children’s hospital network, and had a response rate of about 45%, so the results cannot show cause and may not apply to all physicians.

Abstract

Perfectionism is understudied among physicians and the current findings suggest that addressing system and individual-level factors that encourage perfectionism is warranted and may reduce risk for physician burnout.

Topics

Diversity and Career in Medicine Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout Perfectionism, Procrastination, Anxiety Studies

Categories

Clinical Psychology Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Agreeableness Big Five personality traits Burnout Clinical psychology Conscientiousness Depersonalization Emotional exhaustion Extraversion and introversion Medicine Perfectionism (psychology) Personality Psychology Social psychology

Conditions & symptoms

Burnout