Cardiac intensive care unit (CICU)-focused clinicians reported high job satisfaction, yet one in three also reported burnout, according to the first study to investigate burnout in this population, published March 25 in JACC: Advances. Burnout was more common among women and clinicians in later career stages and was the leading reason respondents considered a practice change.

ACC's Critical Care Cardiology Member Section developed the survey, which was emailed to 1,085 clinicians in the U.S. and Canada, including critical care cardiologists and noncardiology CICU-focused physicians. Between Oct. 25, 2023, and March 4, 2024, the online survey was completed by 289 clinicians (27%); 218 were included in the present analysis. Most respondents were White (62%) and male (70%), and 61% were aged 31 to 50 years.

Samuel B. Brusca, MD, and colleagues found that 35% of respondents reported some degree of burnout. Women were more likely than men to report burnout (53% vs. 30%, p=0.03) and clinicians who had practiced ≥8 years than those who had practiced <8 years (43% vs. 25%, p=0.04).

Notably, no association was observed between burnout and the number of daytime or nighttime shifts, salary or type of board certification.

Despite high overall job satisfaction, fewer than half of respondents were happy with their work-life balance (48%) or required professional responsibilities outside the hospital (41%). One-third were planning to leave their current job or reduce clinical hours, mostly due to burnout.

"High-intensity and emotionally demanding specialties such as emergency medicine, critical care medicine, and hospitalist medicine have historically been implicated as especially taxing on providers," write the authors. "More data are needed regarding individual behaviors and institutional characteristics most associated with burnout, and how we can improve physician well-being to safeguard high-value CICU care."