Background: Senior residentship is one of the most challenging stages for healthcare providers due to long working hours, increased patient load, and lack of personal space. Critical care support by anaesthesia and medicine residents are some of the disciplines most susceptible to burnout and stress. Hence, this study compared burnout and stress among anaesthesia and medicine senior residents (SRs) in critical care units.
Material and Methods: This study was conducted from July to October 2024 among 50 Anaesthesia and 50 Medicine SRs of a tertiary care centre in Chennai through an online semi-structured questionnaire adopted from the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), and Burnout Clinical Subtypes Questionnaire (BCSQ-12). Data was analysed using SPSS version 21.
Results: A total of 100 SRs (50 in Anaesthesia and 50 in Medicine) responded to the study. Most participants (68%) worked 6–12 hours per day, and more than half (54%) had 5–10 night shifts monthly. Despite provisions for post-duty off and weekly off, Medicine SRs exhibited significantly higher burnout scores (15.9 ± 4.2) than anaesthesia SRs (14.2 ± 3.8), with a statistically significant difference (p = 0.036). Stress levels were also notably higher among Medicine SRs (16.9 ± 3.4) compared to anaesthesia SRs (15.3 ± 2.8), with a p-value of 0.012.
Conclusion: Medicine SRs experience higher stress and burnout levels than Anaesthesia SRs, emphasising the urgent need for interventions. Healthcare policymakers must prioritize reforms to optimize working hours and provide accessible mental health support. Institutional measures, such as implementing mandatory counselling sessions, structured feedback systems, and adequate leave policies, are critical to mitigating burnout. These reforms can enhance the well-being of medical residents, ensuring sustained clinical service delivery without compromising patient care.
Keywords: Burnout, Stress, Senior residents, Anaesthesia, Medicine.
