LAUSR

Residency is a crucial phase of medical training in which trainees acquire the skills and knowledge needed to practise medicine. It has been described as a challenging rite of passage, and in one survey 74% of resident physicians reported they would not recommend their job to their own friends.1 One explanation for this might be found in studies reporting that 76% of internal medicine (IM) resident physicians2 and 65% of emergency medicine (EM) resident physicians3 experience burn-out. Burn-out is defined by Maslach and Jackson (p99)4 as having three key components: ‘(1) increased feelings of emotional exhaustion’; (2) ‘the development of negative, cynical attitudes and feelings about one’s clients’ (eg, patients); and (3) ‘the tendency to evaluate oneself negatively’ (eg, perceptions of poor work performance). One important reason to address the high prevalence of burn-out among resident physicians is due to the association between burn-out with suboptimal patient care2 and patient safety.3 Thomas5 found in her review of 67 studies that the factors associated with burn-out among resident physicians could be divided into three major categories: (1) work-related, (2) demographic and (3) personal. However, almost all published studies have relied exclusively on quantitative survey methods to identify factors related to burn-out. Additionally, resident physicians have not been involved in selecting the interventions used to reduce burn-out. Including the perspective of resident physicians might help to …