Objectives: Our objective was to estimate the incidence of recent burnout in a large sample of Taiwanese physicians and analyze associations with job related satisfaction and medical malpractice experience.Methods: We performed a cross-sectional survey. Physicians were asked to fill out a questionnaire that included demographic information, practice characteristics, burnout, medical malpractice experience, job satisfaction, and medical error experience. There are about 2% of total physicians. Physicians who were members of the Taiwan Society of Emergency Medicine, Taiwan Surgical Association, Taiwan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Taiwan Pediatric Association, and Taiwan Stroke Association, and physicians of two medical centers, three metropolitan hospitals, and two local community hospitals were recruited.Results: There is high incidence of burnout among Taiwan physicians. In our research, Visiting staff (VS) and residents were more likely to have higher level of burnout of the emotional exhaustion (EE) and depersonalization (DP), and personal accomplishment (PA). There was no difference in burnout types in gender. Married had higher-level burnout in EE. Physicians who were 20~30 years old had higher burnout levels in EE, those 31~40 years old had higher burnout levels in DP, and PA. Physicians who worked in medical centers had a higher rate in EE, DP, and who worked in metropolitan had higher burnout in PA. With specialty-in-training, physicians had higher-level burnout in EE and DP, but lower burnout in PA. Physicians who worked 13-17hr continuously had higher-level burnout in EE. Those with ≥41 times/week of being on call had higher-level burnout in EE and DP. Physicians who had medical malpractice experience had higher-level burnout in EE, DP, and PA. Physicians who were not satisfied with physician-patient relationships had higher-level burnout than those who were satisfied.Conclusion: Physicians in Taiwan face both burnout and a high risk in medical malpractice. There is high incidence of burnout among Taiwan physicians. This can cause shortages in medical care human resources and affect patient safety. We believe that high burnout in physicians was due to long working hours and several other factors, like mental depression, the evaluation assessment system, hospital culture, patient-physician relationships, and the environment. This is a very important issue on public health that Taiwanese authorities need to deal with.

ObjectiveTo explore the association between clinical leadership and quality of work life, as well as the mediating role of coping style in this relationship.SettingThree tertiary-level hospitals in Liaoning Province, China.ParticipantsA total of 1209 nurses were recruited for this study. Registered nurses who work full time with at least 1 year of work experience were eligible as subjects. Exclusion criteria were nurses who work indirectly with patients, such as in education, administration or research.Primary and secondary outcome measuresQuestionnaires consisting of the work-related Quality of Life Scale, the Nurse Leadership Scale and the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire, as well as a demographic data sheet, were used to collect participant information. Pearson’s correlation analysis, hierarchical multiple regression analysis, and asymptotic and resampling strategies were used to analyse the data.ResultsThe mean overall quality of work life score among Chinese nurses was 3.50±0.60. After adjusting for demographic characteristics, clinical leadership was positively associated with the score of quality of work life (β=0.55, p<0.01). Clinical leadership explained 27% of the variance in quality of work life. Coping style partially mediated the relationship between clinical leadership and quality of work life. The proportion of mediation of active coping was 21.82% and of passive coping was 5.79%.ConclusionsClinical leadership was positively associated with quality of work life and coping style partially mediated the relationship between clinical leadership and quality of work life among nurses in China. Implementing measures focusing on both clinical leadership and coping style may provide success in improving the quality of work life of nurses.