Female physicians are more burned out than male physicians, but they also feel burned out in different ways, according to the 2015 Medscape Physician Lifestyle Report.
More female physicians (51 percent) reported burnout, compared to male physicians, who reported a 43 percent burnout rate. However, the report suggests female and male physicians feel burned out for different reasons. Results point to emotional exhaustion as the catalyst for female physician burnout, however, in males, burnout starts with depersonalization.
The authors suggest this is a result of how men and women cope with stress. Men use depersonalization as an initial strategy, which leads to emotional exhaustion, whereas women deal with stress emotionally first and depersonalize when they are exhausted.
Results do show higher burnout rates for women in potentially emotionally stressful specialties. Men's burnout rates did not follow the same pattern across all specialties. Women in critical care (61 percent), cardiology (60 percent), general surgery (59 percent) and emergency medicine (58 percent) all ranked high for burnout and ranked higher than men in their respective specialties. Urology (67 percent) and orthopedics (61 percent) specialties also topped the list.
Dermatology was the only specialty in which women (36 percent) reported less burnout than men (about 38 percent).
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