TY - JOUR T1 - Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic upon self-reported physician burnout in Ontario, Canada: evidence from a repeated cross-sectional survey JF - BMJ Open JO - BMJ Open DO - 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-060138 VL - 12 IS - 9 SP - e060138 AU - Jainita Gajjar AU - Naomi Pullen AU - Yin Li AU - Sharada Weir AU - James G Wright Y1 - 2022/09/01 UR - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/9/e060138.abstract N2 - Objectives To estimate the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic on levels of burnout among physicians in Ontario, Canada, and to understand physician perceptions of the contributors and solutions to burnout.Design Repeated cross-sectional survey.Setting Active and retired physicians, residents and medical students in Canada’s largest province were invited to participate in an online survey via an email newsletter.Participants In the first survey wave (March 2020), 1400 members responded (representing 76.3% of those who could be confirmed to have received the survey and 3.1% of total membership). In the second wave (March 2021), 2638 responded (75.9% of confirmed survey recipients and 5.8% of membership).Key outcome measure Level of burnout was assessed using a validated, single-item, self-defined burnout measure where options ranged from 1 (no symptoms of burnout) to 5 (completely burned out).Results The overall rate of high levels of burnout (self-reported levels 4–5) increased from 28.0% in 2020 (99% CI: 24.3% to 31.7%) to 34.7% in 2021 (99% CI: 31.8% to 37.7%), a 1-year increase of 6.8 percentage points (p<0.01). After a full year of practising during the COVID-19 pandemic, respondents ranked ‘patient expectations/patient accountability’, ‘reporting and administrative obligations’ and ‘practice environment’ as the three factors that contributed most to burnout. Respondents ranked ‘streamline and reduce required documentation/administrative work’, ‘provide fair compensation’ and ‘improve work–life balance’ as the three most important solutions.Conclusions During the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, prevalence of high levels of burnout had significantly increased. The contributors and solutions ranked highest by physicians were system-level or organisational in nature.Data were obtained without consent for sharing and therefore may not be made available. No data are available. ER -