Measuring resident well-being: impostorism and burnout syndrome in residency.
BACKGROUND
Assessing resident well-being is becoming increasingly important from a programmatic standpoint. Two measures that have been used to assess this are the Clance Impostor Scale (CIS) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS). However, little is known about the relationship between the two phenomena.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the prevalence and association between impostorism and burnout syndrome in a sample of internal medicine residents.


METHODS
Anonymous, cross-sectional postal survey.


METHODS
Forty-eight internal medicine residents (postgraduate year [PGY] 1-3) at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry (62.3% response rate).


RESULTS
Short demographic questionnaire, CIS and MBI-HSS. Impostorism and burnout syndrome were identified in 43.8% and 12.5% of residents, respectively. With the exception of a negative correlation between CIS scores and the MBI's personal accomplishment subscale (r = -.30; 95% CI -.54 to -.02), no other significant relations were identified. Foreign-trained residents were more likely to score as impostors (odds ratio [OR] 10.7; 95% CI 1.2 to 98.2) while senior residents were more likely to experience burnout syndrome (OR 16.5 95% CI 1.6 to 168.5).


CONCLUSIONS
Both impostorism and burnout syndrome appear to be threats to resident well-being in our program. The lack of relationship between the two would suggest that programs and researchers wishing to address the issue of resident distress should consider using both measures. The finding that foreign-trained residents appear to be more susceptible to impostorism warrants further study.
Legassie
Jenny
J
Division of Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, London Health Sciences Centre, London, ON, Canada.
Zibrowski
Elaine M
EM
Goldszmidt
Mark A
MA
D000328:Adult; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education*; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis