Physician Assistants/Associates Burnout and Intention to Leave Principal Clinical Position: A National Cross-Sectional Analysis

Burnout can have a detrimental impact on both medical providers and patients. We quantified burnout in the PA workforce using a robust national 2021 dataset (111,726) from the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA). We assessed the association of burnout with PA demographic and practice characteristics and explored burnout as a predictor of intending to leave principal clinical position in the next year while adjusting for covariates. Overall, 30.6% of PAs had at least one symptom of burnout, and 7.8% indicated planning to leave their principal clinical position next year. In multivariate analysis, adjusting for all covariates among the strongest predictors of increased odds of burnout included working more hours and seeing a greater number of patients per week, spending less than 25% on direct patient care vs. 75% or more, residing in New England vs. the South Atlantic, practicing in the community health center vs. hospital, practicing in Critical Care Medicine vs. Primary Care and age 35-44 vs. less than 35. Among the strongest factors associated with decreased odds of burnout were spending more time on direct patient care, practicing in General Surgery and Dermatology vs. Primary Care, male gender, and having a secondary clinical position. PAs with one or more burnout symptoms had over three-and-a-half higher odds of planning to leave their principal position in the next 12 months. Burnout among providers has been increasing. Understanding PAs’ burnout levels is vital to ensuring support to optimize their utility, retention, and sustainability to provide high-quality patient care.