Burnout Trends in Medical Residents: AMA Study Shows Decline, but Emergency Medicine Still Faces High Rates
- A new report from the American Medical Association shows a decline in burnout among medical residents and fellows, with 28.6% reporting burnout symptoms in 2025, down from 34.5%...
- The findings come from the AMA National Resident Comparison Report, which surveyed more than 3,000 resident and fellow physicians across 20 states and 29 organizations, reflecting 2025 trends...
- Alongside lower burnout, residents reported improvements in job satisfaction and reduced job stress.
A new report from the American Medical Association shows a decline in burnout among medical residents and fellows, with 28.6% reporting burnout symptoms in 2025, down from 34.5% the previous year.
The findings come from the AMA National Resident Comparison Report, which surveyed more than 3,000 resident and fellow physicians across 20 states and 29 organizations, reflecting 2025 trends on key well-being indicators including job satisfaction, job stress, burnout, intent to leave, and feeling valued.
Alongside lower burnout, residents reported improvements in job satisfaction and reduced job stress. Specifically, 90.1% said they were satisfied with their training programs—a 4.4 percentage point increase from the prior year—while 34.2% reported job stress, down six percentage points from 2024.
Despite these gains, burnout remains a significant concern across the broader physician workforce. Separate AMA data indicates that 41.9% of all physicians reported at least one burnout symptom in 2025, down from 43.2% in 2024 and 48.2% in 2023.
Emergency medicine continues to have the highest burnout rate among specialties, with 49.8% of emergency physicians reporting symptoms in 2025, followed closely by urological surgery at 49.5%.
In contrast, specialties such as infectious disease (23.3%), nephrology (29.3%), and dermatology (31.5%) reported some of the lowest burnout levels, highlighting persistent disparities across medical fields.
The AMA defines burnout as a long-term stress reaction involving emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, or a sense of reduced personal accomplishment. The organization attributes recent improvements to systemic efforts by health systems to increase job satisfaction and reduce administrative burdens.
To support ongoing progress, the AMA offers resources such as the Joy in Medicine Health System Recognition Program and the STEPS Forward® toolkit, which help institutions implement evidence-based strategies to improve physician well-being.