Career Calling as a Personal Resource Moderator Between Environmental Demands and Burnout in Australian Junior Doctors

Abstract

We surveyed 355 junior doctors (first 4 years of post-university training; 69% female, mean age = 28 years) from multiple hospital and practice locations and used an online questionnaire to assess their training-related demands (academic stress, concern about training debt, and hours worked), academic burnout, and personal resources (operationalized as career calling). We tested whether training-related demands were associated with academic burnout and whether career calling moderated the association between the demands and burnout. The demands accounted for approximately one third of the variance in burnout, with all accounting for significant, unique variance. In the context of the demands, career calling was not a significant predictor, but it moderated the association between academic stress and burnout. The study identified additional ways that junior doctors can be assisted to manage these first few years of medical training after graduating from medical school.