The Burnout in Canadian Pathology Initiative Pathologist Burnout Prevalence, Drivers, and Existing Mitigation Strategies

Context.-Burnout affects 44% of physicians, negatively impacts physicians and the patient care that they provide, and can be assessed by the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Forces contributing to physician burnout have been identified and grouped into 7 dimensions. Burnout within pathology has not been well studied. Objective.-To identify the prevalence of burnout within Canadian pathology, drivers of burnout important in pathology, and pathologist burnout mitigation strategies at an individual and departmental level.Design.-An electronic survey was disseminated by participating departmental chiefs and the Canadian Asso-ciation of Pathologists. Survey content included the Maslach Burnout Inventory and 3 free-text questions, including: "What do you find most stressful about your work?"and "What is working for you, at an individual or departmental level, to mitigate against burnout?"Com-parative statistics were performed by using Pearson v2. Significant relationships were sought between pathologistburnout and potential drivers, using Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Responses to the qualitative questions were themed and mapped onto the 7 dimensions of burnout.Results.-Four hundred twenty-seven pathologists par-ticipated in the survey from all 10 Canadian provinces. The prevalence of burnout in Canadian pathology was 58% (246 respondents), and there were significant differences by gender and years in practice. Drivers of pathologist burnout included workload and chronic work-related pain. The most frequently reported effective departmental strategy to mitigate against burnout mapped to "organiza-tional culture,"and the approach that most individual pathologists have taken to mitigate against burnout involves work-life integration.Conclusions.-Burnout within Canadian laboratory medicine is prevalent, and workload is a major driver. (Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2023;147:568-576; doi: 10.5858/ arpa.2021-0200-OA)