Pediatric Faculty Engagement and Associated Areas of Worklife After a COVID19 Surge.

Purpose: Healthcare organizations strive to increase physician engagement and decrease attrition. However, little is known about which specific worklife areas may be targeted to improve physician engagement or retention, especially after stressful events such as a COVID19 surge. Our objective was to identify demographic characteristics and worklife areas most associated with increased physician engagement and decreased intent to leave in pediatric faculty. Patients and Methods: In September 2020, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of faculty at an academic, tertiary-care children's hospital. A convenience and voluntary sampling approach was used. The survey included demographics, Maslach Burnout Index-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) and the Areas of Worklife Survey (AWS). The MBI-HSS was used to measure faculty engagement. The AWS measures satisfaction with six worklife areas (workload, control, reward, fairness, community, values). We used bivariate analyses to examine relationships between worklife areas and engagement and between worklife areas and intent to leave. We included multivariate logistic regression models to examine worklife areas most associated with increased work engagement and decreased intent to leave. Results: Our response rate was 41% (113/274 participants). In bivariate analysis, engaged faculty reported higher satisfaction in all worklife areas. In multivariate analyses, positive perceptions of workload (odds ratio (OR) 2.83; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.2-6.9), control (OR, 3.24; 95% CI 1.4-7.3), and community (OR, 6.07; 95% CI 1.9-18.7) were associated with engagement. Positive perceptions of values (OR, 0.07; 95% CI 0.02-0.32) and community (OR, 0.19; 95% CI 0.05-0.78) were negatively associated with intent to leave. Conclusion: We found that positive perceptions of workload, control, and community were most associated with engagement. Alignment of values and increased sense of community were associated with decreased intent to leave. Our findings suggest specific worklife areas may be targeted to increase faculty engagement and retention.

Changes in Pediatric Faculty Burnout During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and associated workflow changes, such as deployment on pediatric faculty burnout in an early epicenter of the pandemic. We hypothesized burnout would increase during the COVID-19 surge. METHODS: We conducted serial cross-sectional surveys of pediatric faculty at an academic, tertiary-care children's hospital that experienced a COVID-19 surge in the Northeastern United States. Surveys were administered pre-surge (February 2020), during the surge (April 2020), and postsurge (September 2020). The primary outcome was burnout prevalence. We also measured areas of worklife scores. We compared responses between all 3 survey periods. Continuous variables were analyzed by using Student's t or Mann-Whitney tests, and categorical variables were analyzed by using χ2 or Fisher's exact test, as appropriate. RESULTS: Our response rate was 89 of 223 (40%) presurge, 100 of 267 (37%) during the surge, and 113 of 275 (41%) postsurge. There were no differences in demographics, including sex, race, and academic rank between survey periods. Frequency of burnout was similar in all 3 periods (20% to 26%). The mean scores of emotional exhaustion improved during the surge (2.25 to 1.9; P = .04). CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to our hypothesis, we found no changes in pediatric faculty burnout after a COVID-19 surge. Emotional exhaustion improved during the COVID-19 surge. However, these findings represent short-term responses to the COVID-19 surge. Longer-term monitoring of the impact of the COVID-19 surge on pediatric faculty burnout may be necessary for health care organizations to mitigate burnout.