Study Sheds Light on Drivers of Well-Being and Fulfillment in Mohs Surgeons

Lam C, Kim Y, Costigan HJ, Stuckey H, Vidimos AT, Billingsley EM, Albertini JG, Miller JJ, Shanafelt TD. Well-Being and Professional Fulfillment in Mohs Surgeons: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed-Method Design Study. Dermatol Surg. 2023 Jul 1;49(7):645-648. doi: 10.1097/DSS.0000000000003801. Epub 2023 May 11. PMID: 37184466.

33 Mohs surgeons completed the survey, with the majority endorsing symptoms of burnout. The common themes associated with burnout mentioned by participants in this study included unrealistic standards of perfection and personal-organizational practice incongruences

Clinical Pearls

• This explanatory sequential mixed-method study used semistructured individual interviews with Mohs surgeons to identify drivers of physician well-being, fulfillment, and occupational distress

• A prior, qualitative study on this topic was performed by the authors which had found burnout to be prevalent among Mohs surgeons and especially female Mohs surgeons

• 33 Mohs surgeons completed the survey, with the majority endorsing symptoms of burnout. The common themes associated with burnout mentioned by participants in this study included unrealistic standards of perfection and personal-organizational practice incongruences.

Discussion:

Using a pool of 137 respondents from the initial quantitative phase of this study published in the International Journal of Women’s Dermatology, the authors emailed a survey offering the opportunity to participate in the qualitative phase. This qualitative phase included 33 participants who were given an electronic gift card for their participation.

Each participant underwent an individual semistructured, video conference interview lasting 20-40 minutes. Audio recordings of this interview were then sent to a third-party for transcription and were subsequently analyzed by the study team. The authors then extracted common themes from each interview’s transcript.

The authors found that the participants often expressed gratitude for their occupation, especially the ability to create meaningful physician-patient relationships. Additionally, participants’ relationships with trainees and colleagues were found to contribute to professional fulfillment. On the other hand, unrealistic standards of perfection were often cited by participants. Finally, the authors noted participants often expressed frustration with personal-organizational practice incongruences. The cross-sectional design and relatively small sample size in relation to the large population of practicing Mohs surgeons were limitations of this study.