Career trajectory in cardiac surgery at the present stage: "to burn out or to move up"?

Introduction. The problem of occupational burnout in healthcare is of particular importance, as medical work places increased demands on professional skills and the absence of errors, and a decrease in the effectiveness of medical personnel can lead to adverse consequences for patients.

Objective. Study of professional burnout of doctors in cardiac surgery at the present stage and identification of risk factors influencing the development of professional burnout from the point of view of the career trajectory, with the subsequent development of measures to mitigate the identified risk factors.

Material and methods. A multi-stage study, including a questionnaire survey of doctors specializing in cardiovascular and endovascular surgery to assess professional burnout using the Maslach Burnout Inventory(MBI) and identify risk factors for the development of professional burnout in terms of career trajectory, systematization and statistical processing of the obtained data, as well as the development of new approaches to personnel management in cardiac surgery, allowing the identified risk factors to be mitigated.

Results. A comprehensive analysis of the survey results made it possible to identify the main risk factors for the development of professional burnout in terms of career trajectory. No statistically significant differences in the structure of risk factors depending on the length of respondents’ professional experience were identified. At the same time, a statistically significant correlation was found between satisfaction with the career trajectory and the severity of professional burnout. Based on the data obtained, a new concept for managing medical personnel was developed.

Conclusion. The proposed justified concept of personnel management can be used to prevent professional burnout in employees associated with career expectations, which in the long term will contribute to improving the quality of cardiac surgical care.

Limitations. The complexity of formulating questions for a survey of doctors to identify risk factors for the development of professional burnout from the perspective of career trajectory, the complexity of verifying the validity of a specialized questionnaire due to its novelty and the lack of analogues.

Compliance with ethical standards. The design and procedure of the study fully comply with the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki of the World Medical Association, the recommendations of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics), the requirements of Federal Law No. 323-FZ “On the Fundamentals of Protecting the Health of Citizens in the Russian Federation” and Federal Law No. 152-FZ “On Personal Data” and do not require a separate opinion of the medical ethics committee. All participants gave informed voluntary written consent to participate in the study.

Funding. The study had no sponsorship.

Conflict of interest. The author declares no conflict of interest.

Received: October 2, 2025 / Accepted: April 24, 2026 / Published: July 28, 2026

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