Exploring burnout and uncertainty in healthcare professionals: a path analysis within the context of rare diseases

David Zybarth ^1* Laura Inhestern ¹ Corinna Bergelt ²

• ¹ University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
• ² University Medical Center, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

Burnout among doctors is gaining more attention in recent years. Besides influences by stressful working conditions and individual factors, there are also findings of correlations between burnout and the uncertainty tolerance of physicians. This association could be particularly important in the context of rare diseases, because the diseases inherently offer more room for uncertainty. So far there are no studies investigating this topic. The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate the associations between uncertainty and burnout scores of physicians while considering the secondary factors experience with rare diseases and COVID related stress. Although it was not our primary focus, we included COVID related stress due to the ongoing pandemic situation. We conducted an online survey using the Physicians’ Reaction to Uncertainty Scale (PRU) and the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI). Experience with rare diseases was operationalised by assessing the weekly working time with this patient group. We conducted a path analysis, starting with a full-recursive model and gradually removing the non-significant paths. 128 physicians (n=73 female) took part in the survey. 31% of participants had significant burnout scores. There were significant associations between the PRU subscale anxiety on both dimensions of burnout and between the PRU subscale disclosure to patients and the burnout dimension exhaustion. COVID related stress was significantly associated with the burnout dimension exhaustion. The experience with rare diseases was significantly associated with the burnout dimension disengagement. There is no correlation between experience with rare diseases and uncertainty scores. The model showed a very good fit (RMSEA=0.055). Our results show that burnout of physicians is a striking problem. In line with other studies, we detected associations between anxiety due to uncertainty and burnout scores as well.