How do French Obstetrician-Gynaecologists perceive their quality of life? A national survey

Obstetrics is a constraining specialty due to heavy workloads and repeated stressful situations. French maternity wards are facing many difficulties to recruit, as a consequence of the conversion of a significant number of Obstetrician-Gynecologists (OB-GYNs) to exclusive daily private practice. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of life (QOL) of OB-GYNs in order to identify burnout risk factors, develop prevention strategies and therefore ensure patient safety. A Google forms questionnaire assessing QOL and life/work balance was distributed by e-mail to 1397 members of the National College of French OB-GYNs (CNGOF). This was a declarative multicenter cross-sectional survey. Four hundred sixty-one responses were collected (response rate 30%). A burnout episode was reported by 31.3% of respondents. Main burnout risk factors were limited staff on the on-call schedule (p = 0.008) and low salary (p