In this paper I examine the production of burnout inventories in the medical profession and the pitfalls of quantifying emotional states.
Long abstract:
Burnout has become an important topic in health professions education in the United States and globally since 2010 As the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to severely impact the healthcare workforce, hospital systems and universities in the United States have increasingly devoted resources to measuring and intervening upon burnout among trainees. In this talk, I examine the unsettled science of burnout using data from content analysis and interviews with leaders in the field. I argue that the incorporation of positive psychology into health professions education and the quantification of psychological states through burnout metrics shifts institutional focus away from the structural causes of burnout toward individual-level explanations and personal responsibility.