The Relationship Between Grit, Burnout, and Well‐being in Emergency Medicine Residents

Abstract

Background: Burnout has become endemic in medicine, across all specialties and levels of training. Grit, defined as "perseverance and passion for long-term goals," attempts to quantify the ability to maintain sustained effort throughout an extended length of time. Our objective is to assess burnout and well-being and examine their relationship with the character trait, grit, in emergency medicine residents.Methods: In Fall 2016, we conducted a multicenter cross-sectional survey at five large, urban, academically affiliated emergency departments. Residents were invited to anonymously provide responses to three validated survey instruments; the Short Grit Scale, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and the World Health Organization-5 Well-Being Index.Results: A total of 222 residents completed the survey (response rate = 86%). A total of 173 residents (77.9%) met criteria for burnout and 107 residents (48.2%) met criteria for low well-being. Residents meeting criteria for burnout and low well-being had significantly lower mean grit scores than those that did not meet criteria. Residents with high grit scores had lower odds of experiencing burnout and low well-being (odds ratio [OR] = 0.26, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.46-0.85; and [OR] = 0.33, 95% CI = 0.16-0.72, respectively). Residents with low grit scores were more likely to experience burnout and more likely to have low well-being (OR = 6.17, 95% CI = 1.43-26.64; and OR = 2.76, 95% CI = 1.31-5.79, respectively).Conclusion: A significant relationship exists between grit, burnout, and well-being. Residents with high grit appear to be less likely to experience burnout and low well-being while those with low grit are more likely to experience burnout and low well-being.

The Moderator Role of Passion for Work in the Association between Work Stressors and Secondary Traumatic Stress: A Cross‐Level Diary Study among Health Professionals of Intensive Care Units

“…optimism and self‐efficacy) may buffer the relationship between work stressors and emotional exhaustion (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017), or boost the relationship between work stressors and well‐being (Donoso, Demerouti, Garrosa, Moreno‐Jiménez, & Carmona‐Cobo, 2015). However, little is known about how passion for work—as a personal resource—may influence the relationship between work stressors and negative consequences (Lavigne et al, 2014), although authors such as Dam, Perera, Jones, Haughy, and Gaeta (2019) established that passion, among others, may protect against work stressors in that field. Despite this, the lack of studies in this vein means that current studies need to strongly emphasise the need for examining the moderator role of this passion for work (Pollack, Ho, O’Boyle, & Kirkman, 2020).…”

An Analysis of the Relationship between Grit and the Psychological Well-Being of Psychiatry Residents

“…The results of this study showed that measuring the grit of residents can be a predictor of their overall psychological well-being or burnout. In the U.S., where most of the studies on the grit, which is a non-cognitive feature of individuals, are conducted, there are many studies [16,17] conducted on residents in surgery or emergency departments. A study measuring grit among about 400 orthopedic residents reported that the grit score of most residents was higher than that of the general sample [18] and that the grit score was an independent www.moodandemotion.org factor predicting psychological burnout or psychological well-being.…”

The Champagne Tap: Time to Pop the Cork?

“…Clinical burnout continues to be a significant problem for those in the early stages of their medical careers. 10 Burnout is characterized by a low sense of personal accomplishment in the work environment, and stressful workplace relationships with supervisors contribute to resident burnout. 11 Small token rewards (e.g., champagne) provided more frequently following stressful events (e.g., performance of an LP by a trainee on an infant) is a simple tangible method to reduce workplace stress and perhaps trainee burnout by strengthening trainee-supervisor relations.…”