Prospective cohort study which evaluates factors that may influence the psychology and behavior of physicians

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Rationale, aims and objectives : Hope is an important resource that influences an individual's ability to cope with stressful situations. The objective of this study is to evaluate the association of medical errors with burnout, and hope among practicing physicians using validated metrics.Method : Participants were physicians who had already completed residency training, and were working in hospital settings (N=1054). Surveys included self-assessment of medical errors and validated Burnout Scale (depersonalization [DP], and emotional exhaustion [EE]), and Herth Hope Index. Outcome measure was frequency of self-perceived medical errors was recorded.Results : A total of 716 errors were reported in 1054 physician-years. We observed a significant association between the burnout EE, DP domain score, and reporting an error ; compared with the lowest tertile category, IRRs of self-perceived medical errors of physicians in the highest category were 1.40 (95%CI, 1.16-1.68) and 1.37 (95%CI, 1.15-1.63) respectively, for EE and DP. We did not find a significant association between the hope score, and self-perceived medical errors. In stratified analysis by hope score, among physicians with a low hope score, those who experienced higher burnout reported higher incidence of errors ; physicians with high hope scores did not report high incidences of errors, even if they experienced high burnout.Conclusions : Self-perceived medical errors exhibited a strong association with physicians' personal well-being : burnout was strongly associated with self-perceived errors. However, this association was modified when physicians' felt hope.