Residents’ Perceptions of Faculty Behaviors and Resident Burnout: a Cross-Sectional Survey Study Across a Large Health Care Organization

Background: Data suggests the learning environment factors influence resident well-being. The authors conducted an assessment of how residents’ perceptions of faculty-resident relationships, faculty professional behaviors, and afforded autonomy related to resident burnout. Methods: All residents at one organization were surveyed in 2019 using two items from the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the faculty relationship subscale of the Johns Hopkins Learning Environment Scale (JHLES, range 6 to 30). Residents were also asked about faculty professional behaviors (range 0 to 30), and satisfaction with autonomy across various clinical settings. Results: A total of 762/1146 (66.5%) residents responded to the survey. After adjusting for age, gender, postgraduate year, and specialty, lower (less favorable) JHLES-faculty relationship subscale score (parameter estimate, − 3.08, 95% CI − 3.75, − 2.41, p < 0.0001), fewer observed faculty professional behaviors (parameter estimate, − 3.34, 95% CI − 4.02, − 2.67, p < 0.0001), and lower odds of satisfaction with autonomy in the intensive care settings (OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.30, 0.70, p = 0.001), but not other care settings, were reported by residents with burnout in comparison to those without. Similar relationships were observed when emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were analyzed separately as continuous variables. Conclusion: In this cohort, resident perceptions of faculty relationships, faculty professional behaviors, and satisfaction with autonomy in the intensive care unit were associated with resident burnout. Additional longitudinal studies are needed to elucidate the direction of these relationships and determine if faculty development can reduce resident burnout.