P2B365: The Creative Mindset of Pediatric Emergency Physicians as a Predictor of Burnout: An Exploratory Study

Background: Physician burnout (BO) is at an all-time high. Pediatric Emergency physicians (PEM) work in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment with ill-defined and poorly structured problems. Creative thinking and creative problem-solving (CPS) enable individuals to respond effectively to complex problems. Heretofore, no study has examined the relationship between physicians’ CPS preferences and their risk of BO. The effectiveness of creativity training has been well-documented in the literature, thus an individual’s CPS preferences can be modulated through training and learning material and practices which can potentially make them more effective at resolving ill-defined and complex problems and potentially reduce BO.

Methods: This is a prospective, non-experimental, cross-sectional empirical study involving PEMs on active staff in a large hospital system. BO was measured using the Maslach Burnout Index (MBI) and individual CPS preference using FourSight. Demographic data was collected. The MBI is a 22-item questionnaire that measures BO in three dimensions: Emotional Exhaustion (EE), Depersonalization (DP) and Personal Accomplishment (PA). FourSight is a psychological tool that identifies individuals’ cognitive preferences within the CPS process. Results from this 36-item measure reveals an individual’s preference for the four main areas of creative thought: problem clarification (Clarifier scale); idea generation (Ideator scale); solution development (Developer scale); and solution implementation (Implementer scale). Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, linear and multivariate regression analysis. IBM SPSS Version 28.0.0.0 and RStudio 4.2.1 were used to analyze the data. Significance was set at p < 0.05 for each test.

Results: Of the 88 PEM’s invited, 75 (85.2%) completed the 3 surveys. Median age: 43; Female: 59%; White: 47% (Table 1). The Clarifier mindset (slope: 0.84, 95% CI [0.33, 1.34], p= 0.002) and the Developer mindset (slope: 0.59, 95% CI [0.16, 1.02], p= 0.009) correlated with risk of EE (Table 2). These results held on multi-regression analysis with EE as the dependent variable and years of practice, total hours worked/week, gender, and educational debt as predictors. No relationship was found between FS and DP. Interestingly, an Ideator mindset showed a statistically significant correlation (slope: 0.33, 95%CI [0.07, 0.59], p= 0.014) with a positive sense of PA. These findings held true when adjusted for years of practice and total hours worked/week.

Conclusion: Results of this study show that the creative mindset is a powerful predictor of BO, showing even stronger predictive value than hours worked per week and years in practice. Given the fact that the field of creative thinking has well-established and empirically proven training methods, the predictive relationship found between CPS preferences and BO begs the question as to whether training in applied creative-thinking methods might be useful in mitigating BO among PEM’s.