Purpose: To determine the degree of burnout among resident physicians in orthopaedic surgery and traumatology departments in Spanish hospitals and the influence of various factors.

Materials and methods: Descriptive crossover study. The study population included all the resident physicians in orthopaedic surgery and traumatology departments in Spain. We sent an anonymous self-administered questionnaire, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, which assesses emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal accomplishment, in addition to a number of sociodemographic, occupational and personal variables by means of a questionnaire.

Results: Replies were received from 63 orthopaedic surgery and traumatology resident physicians (8%). 47.6% of the participants presented a high degree of emotional exhaustion, 66.6% a high degree of depersonalisation and 38.1% a low degree of personal accomplishment. Among the variables studied we found a high degree of burnout related, among others, to female sex, poor department organisation, little appreciation of the resident’s work and little free time for family. 32.8% of the respondents would choose the same medical specialisation but in a different hospital, as compared to 62.3% who would choose the same specialisation and the same hospital.

Conclusions: The levels of burnout among resident physicians in orthopaedic surgery and traumatology departments in Spain are higher than among associate physicians in the same departments in Spain and than those found in two earlier studies among primary care physicians in Spain and among several medical specialisations internationally. Training activities are needed to alleviate this problem.