title: Sense of meaning as a predictor of burnout in emergency physicians in Israel: a national survey.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Burnout is common in physicians and particularly acute in emergency physicians. Physician burnout may adversely affect physicians' lives and the quality of care they provide, but much remains unknown about its main contributing factors. The present study evaluated burnout rates and contributing factors in emergency physicians in Israel, specifically focusing on the role of a sense of meaning, which has received little attention in the literature concerning burnout in emergency physicians.
  
  
  METHODS
  A multicenter study, involving a convenience sample of physicians working full-time in the emergency departments of 16 general hospitals in Israel, was conducted. Questionnaires were used to assess burnout, demographic characteristics, professional stress, emotional distress, satisfaction, and quality of professional life, and open-ended questions were used to evaluate subjective perception of job satisfaction.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy physicians completed the questionnaires; 71.4% reported significant burnout levels in at least one of the burnout measures, while 82% also reported medium or high levels of competency. Burnout levels were associated with work-life balance, work satisfaction, social support, depressive symptoms, stress, and preoccupying thoughts. Regression analysis yielded two significant factors associated with burnout: worry and a sense of existential meaning derived from work. In addition, 61%, 51%, and 17% of participants exhibited high emotional exhaustion, high depersonalization, and a low sense of personal accomplishment, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate a high burnout rate in emergency physicians in Israel and highlight relevant positive and negative factors including the importance of addressing existential meaning in designing specific intervention programs to counter burnout.
authors.affiliation: Psychological Service, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Shulamit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ben-Itzhak
authors.affiliation: Psychological Service, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel; School of Education, Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gen, Israel.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dvash
authors.affiliation: The Gender Studies Program, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel; The Women's and Gender Studies Program, Haifa University, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Maya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maor
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel; Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Noa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rosenberg
authors.affiliation: Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; Emergency Department, Tel Aviv Souraski Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Pinchas
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Halpern
keywords: Burnout, professional; Emergency medicine; Existential meaning