Road Map for Maintaining Career Satisfaction and Balance in Surgical Oncology

摘要

A recent study of career satisfaction of US cancer surgeons indicates that more than one quarter are suffering from job burnout, a chronic condition caused by drawn-out employment-related frustration and stress and characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a sense of inefficacy.To become practicing surgeons, young men and women endure lengthy and demanding educational and licensing requirements and long, irregular work hours. The Federal government reports, as does a recent survey, that 33% to 40% of physicians, including surgeons, work 60 hours of more per week, and a correlation has been found between a high workload and burnout.3 Educational demands for physicians and surgeons are among the most demanding for any profession, and represent a financial burden: in 2004, educational expenses put 80% of medical school graduates in debt. The American Association of Medical Colleges have found that the median debt burden for graduates of public medical institutions has risen to >Dollars119,000, and that for private school graduates has increased to nearly Dollars 150,000, and medical education debt was 4.5 times as high in 2003 as it was in 1984, growing well beyond the consumer price index, although pay for some specialties is relatively high#