# The association of physician-clinical pharmacist collaboration frequency and experience on physician burnout: are there gender differences

## TL;DR

This study explores how often physicians collaborate with clinical pharmacists and how that affects burnout, finding gender differences in the relationship.

## Contribution

The study identifies gender differences in how collaboration with pharmacists affects physician burnout in China.

## Key findings

- Higher collaboration frequency and positive experiences with pharmacists are linked to lower physician burnout.
- Female physicians report higher cynicism and lower personal accomplishment compared to males at the same collaboration level.
- Gender moderates the relationship between collaboration and burnout dimensions like cynicism.

## Abstract

Burnout is a widespread issue among physicians globally, with pronounced gender disparities observed in China. This paper aims to analyze the collaboration characteristics between clinical pharmacists and physicians in China, examine the impact of collaboration experience and frequency on physician burnout, and explore potential gender differences in these mechanisms to improve collaboration efficiency and reduce physician burnout. Collaboration experience was measured using the “Physician Experience” dimension from the Kuwait questionnaire. Collaboration frequency was assessed by asking physicians how often they collaborate with clinical pharmacists in their daily work.

A cross-sectional study was conducted between July and August 2019 across 93 urban clusters in 31 Chinese provinces. The paper examined collaboration frequency and experience between physicians and clinical pharmacists in secondary and tertiary healthcare institutions, as well as physician burnout status. Data were analyzed using ordinal logistic regression models.

A total of 1,381 questionnaires were distributed and 1,322 were included in the analysis. The results indicate that both the collaboration frequency and experiences between physicians and clinical pharmacists are negatively correlated with burnout. Additionally, gender shows an interactive effect in the negative relationships among collaboration frequency, collaboration experiences, and burnout. Specifically, the inclusion of gender as a variable weakened the negative correlation between collaboration frequency and the cynicism sub-dimension of job burnout. At the same level of collaboration experience, female physicians reported higher levels of cynicism and reduced personal accomplishment in job burnout compared to their male counterparts.

This paper suggests that increasing collaboration frequency between physicians and clinical pharmacists, improving the collaborative experience, and paying particular attention to female physicians’ needs can better reduce physician burnout and improve healthcare service efficiency and quality.