Surgeon wellbeing review highlights workplace pressures and gaps in support
The review describes burnout, mental health concerns and barriers to help, but gives limited detail for judging how well proposed responses work.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
The review links surgeons' wellbeing concerns with long working hours, responsibility for patients and limited institutional support. It describes individual approaches as potentially helpful but insufficient on their own, alongside organizational options such as scheduling changes and mental health services. The abstract supports a broad account of pressures and responses, without establishing which intervention works best.
The methods and results report different totals for included studies. Intervention effect sizes, comparison groups and confidence intervals are absent, so this abstract-only account cannot assess the strength of the reported benefits.
Pressures and barriers
The synthesis covered burnout, anxiety, depression, occupational stress and resilience. It also identified stigma and concerns about professional licensing as barriers to seeking help, placing personal distress within a wider workplace and policy context.
Responses under discussion
Mindfulness, physical activity and peer support were discussed alongside institutional measures. The authors describe organizational interventions as promising but inconsistently implemented; this summary does not quantify their effects on distress, retention or patient outcomes.
The original publication
Surgeon well-being: a systematic review of stressors, mental health, and resilience.
Otukoya EZ, Amiri A, Alimohammadi E
BMC Surg · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 41044709
- Record checked
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