Though the share of physician residents and fellows saying they were experiencing burnout fell in 2025, doctors training in some specialties were more likely to report burnout symptoms, an AMA-exclusive report shows.
Physicians training in obstetrics and gynecology, along with anesthesiology, reported higher total burnout rates than did those in specialties such as internal medicine and radiology.
Overall, residents and fellows reported extremely high satisfaction with their training programs, no matter which specialty they had chosen. Physicians training in emergency medicine, psychiatry and internal medicine were among those with the highest rates of program-related satisfaction.
Additionally, more than half of residents in obstetrics and gynecology reported feeling a great deal of stress related to their training programs, compared with less than one-fourth of residents in anesthesiology.
Based on survey responses from more than 3,000 resident and fellow physicians across 20 states and 29 organizations, the AMA National Resident Comparison Report is exclusive data to the AMA and the Organizational Biopsy. The report reflects 2025 trends on five key performance indicators—job satisfaction, job stress, burnout, intent to leave and feeling valued—as well as additional analysis of drivers and key findings. Download the national resident companion report (email required to access) for a selection of data from the complete National Comparison Report.
The Organizational Biopsy offers health systems valuable insights into the well-being of the physicians in their organizations, and the AMA report allows them to compare their trends with national results. The report includes deidentified data from 3,085 resident responses on surveys collected last year.
Nancy Nankivil, the AMA’s director of organizational well-being, encouraged more organizations with residency and fellowship training programs to take in part in the AMA’s organizational well-being assessment (PDF) work or email [email protected] for more information.
“Our insights will deepen as participation grows and measurement becomes more consistent over time—bringing greater clarity to the unique needs of physicians in training,” said Heather Farley, MD, MHCDS, the AMA’s vice president of professional satisfaction.
In 2025, 28.6% of residents and fellows reported at least one symptom of burnout, which fell 5.9 percentage points from 2024. Though the overall numbers offered encouraging signs, there were some important distinctions found among physician well-being markers in different specialties.
In this article, readers will learn about:
- Which specialties struggle the most with burnout, and which suffer more severe levels of burnout.
- How feelings of program-related stress vary across specialties in residency and fellowship training.
- Which residents and fellows are the most likely to say they plan to remain with their organizations post-training.
- How being in a different specialty may be related to residents and fellows feeling valued.
- What AMA member health systems are doing to address unique well-being challenges in different specialties.
