GMC to question doctors on burnout

Regulator wants to gauge impact of stress on training and trainers

Mark Gould

Tuesday, 20 March 2018

The GMC is to ask doctors about the impact of burnout and exhaustion on their medical education and training.

The GMC says that by giving their views about the quality of training they receive and the environments they’re working in, doctors are providing data required to identify where improvements are required.

The seven questions on burnout and wellbeing were taken from the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory – an internationally-recognised tool that has been used to measure burnout in health care professionals across the world.

The questions are:

Is your work emotionally exhausting?
Do you feel burnt out because of your work?
Does your work frustrate you?
Do you feel worn out at the end of the working day?
Are you exhausted in the morning at the thought of another day at work?
Do you feel that every working hour is tiring for you?
Do you have enough energy for family and friends during leisure time?

Dr Colin Melville, the GMC's director of education and standards, said: "As part of this year’s national training surveys (NTS), which open on Tuesday 20 March, the medical regulator will ask a series of questions around wellbeing and the impact tiredness and workload have on both doctors in training and those training them.

"It is the first time burnout has been addressed by specific questions in the NTS, which seeks the views of around 55,000 doctors in training and 45,000 senior doctors who act as trainers."

The introduction of the new questions follows successful testing of the questions, by the GMC, with around 2,000 doctors. The GMC says last year’s surveys revealed the extent to which trainers had to fit their training roles around daily duties as either consultants or GPs, and that 75% of them worked beyond their rostered hours each week.

It also revealed that more than 40% of trainees rated the intensity of their work by day as ‘heavy’ or ‘very heavy’ and that 22% of doctors in training felt short of sleep while at work.

Dr Melville, added: "We recognise that this is a challenging time. Many doctors are very concerned about the system pressures across all four UK countries and we know that this winter has been particularly hard for both doctors in training and trainers.

"Each year’s NTS results help the GMC, medical education bodies and local organisations to make sure trainees are receiving high-quality training, and that trainers are properly supported. This can’t be done without the hugely valuable input of tens of thousands of doctors."

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