Faculty physicians say they're burned-out, frustrated

Experts are particularly concerned because previous studies showed faculty were feeling stressed even before resident work-hour limits took effect.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. March 13, 2006.

With limits on how many hours residents can work, faculty physicians are now the ones putting in central lines and fielding prescription queries, with the extra work coming at the expense of their academic and research responsibilities, according to recent studies.

John Mellinger, MD, co-author of a January Academic Medicine study examining the impact of resident duty hours on surgical faculty at five academic and four nonacademic general surgery residencies, found the majority of faculty members were working more, feeling more stressed, and spending less time teaching and conducting research since residents' work hours were limited to 80 a week.

"Faculty see the reasons they went into academic medicine being undermined," Dr. Mellinger said of their growing malaise.

Among faculty members surveyed:

• 67% reported they had less time available to teach.
• 73% were performing duties previously handled by residents.
• 61% reported feeling more work-related stress.

Dr. Mellinger, who is the general surgery program director at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, has experienced this personally. He used to be able to find time during his hectic week to slow down while rounding with residents and spend more time teaching and talking through cases.

"The opportunity for that is much less now," Dr. Mellinger said. "Very frequently, my primary concern is who has been here how long and how quickly I can get you out the door."