What a National Survey of 2,698 Anesthesiologists Reveals About Burnout
By FairShare Team · · 3 min read
In November 2022, researchers surveyed member anesthesiologists of the American Society of Anesthesiologists to see how burnout had shifted since the pandemic began. The results, published in the peer-reviewed journal Anesthesiology, are hard to look away from: of the 2,698 respondents, 67.7% were classified at high risk for burnout, and 18.9% met full criteria for burnout syndrome — up sharply from a similar survey in March 2020.
The study didn't stop at prevalence. It also asked what was driving it. The strongest associated factor, by a wide margin, was a perceived lack of support at work — followed closely by staffing shortages, which 78.4% of respondents said they'd personally experienced. Anesthesiologists who said they were likely to leave their job within two years had meaningfully higher burnout rates than those who weren't, and more than a third of all respondents fell into that "likely to leave" group.
What anesthesiologists said would actually help
Here's the part that matters most for what comes next: the survey also asked anesthesiologists directly what would help. Adequate staffing topped the list at nearly 70%. But right behind it were things that have nothing to do with headcount:
- Improved workplace morale and culture (55.9%)
- Increased schedule flexibility (51.7%)
- Better support from leadership (51.3%)
That's a meaningful finding. It suggests the fix isn't only "hire more people" — it's also "change how the people you already have experience their workday." Staffing matters, but so does whether someone feels supported, whether their schedule has any give in it, and whether leadership is visibly on their side.
This is the exact gap FairShare exists to close. Adequate staffing is a real, structural problem this platform doesn't claim to solve on its own — but schedule flexibility, workplace culture, and visible leadership support are things a workplace can start changing this month, not after the next hiring cycle clears. See how the fairness ledger makes those levers visible.
Source
- Afonso AM, Cadwell JB, Staffa SJ, Sinskey JL, Vinson AE. U.S. Attending Anesthesiologist Burnout in the Postpandemic Era. Anesthesiology. 2024;140(1):38–51.