Association between Sick Leave Prescribing Practices and Physician Burnout and Empathy.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 26196687.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0133379 and PMC identifier 4510532.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To investigate the association between sick leave prescription and physician burnout and empathy in a primary care health district in Lleida, Spain. METHODS: This descriptive study included 108 primary care doctors from 22 primary care centers in Lleida in 2014 (183,600 patients). Burnout was measured with the Maslach Burnout Inventory and empathy with the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy. The reliability of the instruments was measured by calculating Cronbach's alpha and normal distribution was analyzed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov-Lilliefors and χ2 tests. Burnout and empathy scores were analyzed by age, sex, and place of work (urban vs rural). Sick leave data were obtained from the Catalan Health Institute. RESULTS: High empathy was significantly associated with low burnout. Neither empathy nor burnout were significantly associated with sick leave prescription. CONCLUSION: Sick leave prescription by physicians is not associated with physicians' empathy or burnout and may mostly depend on prescribing guidelines.
Medical subject headings
- Burnout, Professional
- Empathy
- Physician-Patient Relations
- Physicians, Primary Care
- Sick Leave