What are the best ways to measure physician burnout and wellness?

2 Stanford Professional Fulfillment Index

The Stanford Professional Fulfillment Index (SPFI) is a newer tool that measures both physician burnout and wellness. It consists of 16 items that capture four domains: professional fulfillment, work exhaustion, interpersonal disengagement, and personal resilience. The SPFI is based on a positive psychology framework that emphasizes the factors that promote well-being and prevent burnout, rather than focusing on the negative aspects of burnout. The SPFI is free to use, and it has been validated in various specialties and settings. However, the SPFI also has some limitations, such as its relatively short history, its need for further testing in diverse populations, and its potential overlap with other measures of well-being.

3 Mini-Z Burnout Survey

The Mini-Z Burnout Survey is a brief tool that measures physician burnout and its drivers. It consists of 10 items that capture three components of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and professional satisfaction. It also includes seven items that assess the sources of stress and satisfaction in the work environment, such as workload, autonomy, meaning, teamwork, and leadership. The Mini-Z Burnout Survey is designed to be used as a screening and feedback tool for organizations and teams to identify and address the root causes of burnout. The Mini-Z Burnout Survey is free to use, and it has been shown to be reliable and valid. However, the Mini-Z Burnout Survey also has some challenges, such as its dependence on organizational support, its lack of specificity for different roles and settings, and its limited scope for measuring wellness.

4 Physician Well-Being Index

The Physician Well-Being Index (PWBI) is a short tool that measures physician wellness and distress. It consists of nine items that capture various domains of well-being, such as quality of life, mental health, fatigue, work-life integration, and burnout. It also provides a personal score and a comparison with national norms, as well as access to resources and interventions to improve well-being. The PWBI is intended to be used as a self-care and monitoring tool for physicians to track and enhance their wellness. The PWBI is easy to use, and it has been validated in different specialties and settings. However, the PWBI also has some drawbacks, such as its cost, its reliance on self-reporting, and its potential for underestimating the severity of distress.

5 Other methods

Besides the tools mentioned above, there are other methods to measure physician burnout and wellness, such as qualitative interviews, focus groups, observations, physiological indicators, and performance indicators. These methods can provide rich and contextual insights into the experiences and needs of physicians, as well as objective and observable data on the effects of burnout and wellness. However, these methods also have some limitations, such as their time and resource requirements, their subjectivity and variability, and their ethical and practical challenges.