News Release

Personality tests could predict doctors' burnout

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BMC (BioMed Central)

Burnout, depression and disillusionment amongst doctors are major concerns for health services. A new study in BMC Medicine suggests that future dissatisfaction could have been predicted when individual doctors applied to medical school, by assessing their personality, motivations and learning styles.

"High perceived workload and poor support from colleagues are determined as much by doctors themselves as by specific working conditions," write Professor Chris McManus and his colleagues from University College London.

Their twelve-year study of UK doctors found that approaches to work are predicted by earlier measures of study habits and learning styles. Doctors' perceptions of their work environment, and their feelings of stress and burnout, are predicted mainly by personality.

1,668 doctors currently working as Senior House Officers, Specialist Registrars or General Practitioners were asked about their approaches to work, stress levels, satisfaction with medicine as a career, and their personality. These doctors had previously answered similar questionnaires when they applied to medical school in 1990, upon leaving medical school, and during their first medical job.

Doctors who reported a high workload find it difficult to organise their time effectively, and often read things without understanding them. They also consistently reported higher levels of neuroticism and lower levels of conscientiousness over the twelve years of study.

Doctors who felt that they were not receiving enough support from their colleagues were themselves less agreeable. Those who described their colleagues as receptive and supportive were deemed to be more agreeable both from this questionnaire, and from the questionnaire they filled in six years previously.

Doctors who reported a high degree of satisfaction with medicine as a career tended to be more extraverted and less neurotic. In addition, these medics have a deep approach to work, favouring an integrative approach that leads to higher levels of personal understanding. In addition, they were categorised as having a similarly deep learning style both at the beginning and end of their medical school training.

"The medical workplace is a complex environment and doctors respond differently to it, some finding it stimulating and exciting, whereas others become stressed and burned out from the heavy workload," said McManus.

He continues: "Our study suggests that a knowledge of the personality and learning styles of medical students and doctors may be helpful in allowing individuals to have insight into their strengths and vulnerabilities, and thereby avoid situations in which they become stressed. In addition, such knowledge could help careers advisors and hospital managers to provide individualised advice and counselling for doctors so that they can achieve their full potential".

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This press release is based on the following article:

Stress, burnout and doctors' attitudes to work are determined by personality and learning style: A twelve year longitudinal study of UK medical graduates.
I C McManus, A Keeling, E Paice
BMC Medicine 2004. 2:29
To be published Wednesday 18 August 2004

Upon publication this article will be freely available according to BMC Medicine's Open Access policy at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/2/29

Please quote the journal in any stories that you write, and link to the article if you are writing for the web.

For further information, please contact the lead author Professor I Chris McManus by email at i.mcmanus@ucl.ac.uk or by phone on +44 020-7679 5333 (secretary) +44 020-7679 5390 (office).

Alternatively, or for more information about the journal or Open Access publishing, contact Gemma Bradley by phone on +44 (0)20 7631 9931 or by email at press@biomedcentral.com

BMC Medicine (http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmed/) publishes original research articles, technical advances and study protocols in any area of medical science or clinical practice. To be appropriate for BMC Medicine, articles need to be of special importance and broad interest.

BMC Medicine is published by BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com), an independent online publishing house committed to providing Open Access to peer-reviewed biological and medical research. This commitment is based on the view that immediate free access to research and the ability to freely archive and reuse published information is essential to the rapid and efficient communication of science. BioMed Central currently publishes over 100 journals across biology and medicine. In addition to open-access original research, BioMed Central also publishes reviews, commentaries and other non-original-research content. Depending on the policies of the individual journal, this content may be open access or provided only to subscribers.


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