Neglecting physician desires to teach at an academic medical facility: A mixed method investigation of the consequences

Abstract

Purpose

Recent findings have suggested that physicians who spend more time participating in their most meaningful job activities (e.g. teaching) are less likely to experience burnout. The current study aimed to expound upon this finding, focusing specifically on the role of teaching in promoting meaning and preventing burnout.

Method

A total of 428 physicians at a large academic healthcare institution completed an online survey that included measures of burnout and other relevant variables. In the second part of this study, 20 physicians participated in interviews with the aim of expounding upon and contextualizing the findings from Part 1.

Results

Results from Part 1 suggested that although meaningfulness derived from teaching was associated with reduced burnout, this association was only true for those who indicated that clinical teaching was among the most meaningful parts of being a physician. In addition, physicians were less likely to spend time working on their most meaningful job activity when it was teaching. Part 2 illustrated why teaching in the clinical environment can be so meaningful and protective against burnout.

Conclusions

Many physicians are unable to teach due to the increasing demands of medical institutions, which may contribute to the increasing levels of burnout in healthcare providers.

Keywords:

• Burnout in healthcare
• medical education
• clinical teaching
• meaningful work

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Prisma Health Institutional Review Board (Protocol number: Pro00086152).

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Prisma Health-Upstate for their cooperation in the completion of this research.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest with regard to the study described in the present manuscript.

Glossary

Clinical teaching (environment): Any teaching throughout medical education that is conducted outside the classroom and in a clinical setting with either real or simulated patient experience.

Sequential explanatory design: A research methodology framework that focuses on a quantitative method first, and then allows a qualitative method to provide support and context for the findings of the quantitative inquiry.

Meaningfulness (of work): The level of sense of purpose and fulfilment an individual receives from their work.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Prisma Health via an Enhancing the Practice of Medicine Seed Grant (no grant #).

Notes on contributors

Zachary Klinefelter

Zachary Klinefelter, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Clemson University School of Health Research, Greenville, SC.

Smith Heavner

Smith Heavner, PhD, RN, is Scientific Director of the CURE Drug Repurposing Collaboratory at the Critical Path Institute, Tucson, AZ, and Lecturer at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, Greenville, SC.

Ann Blair Kennedy

Ann Blair Kennedy, DrPH, is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Patient Engagement Studio at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, Greenville, South Carolina.

Thomas Britt

Thomas Britt, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Clemson University, Clemson, SC.

Shannon Stark Taylor

Shannon Stark Taylor, PhD, is the Director of Behavioral Health and Clinical Psychologist in the Department of Family Medicine at Prisma Health, Greenville, South Carolina, Clinical Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, Clinical Assistant Professor, Clemson University School of Health Research.

Molly Benedum

Molly Benedum, MD, Founding Program Director, MAHEC Boone Family Medicine Residency and Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Boone, North Carolina.