The Effect of Medical Malpractice Fear and Defensive Medicine Practices on the Professional Well-being of Emergency Medicine Residents: A Survey Study

Year 2025, Volume: 15 Issue: 2, 142 - 148, 31.08.2025

Ömer Faruk İşleyen , Fatma Tortum

Abstract

Aim: This study aimed to explore the relationship between the fear of malpractice, defensive medicine practices, and professional burnout among emergency medicine residents in Türkiye.
Material and Method: The study was designed as a prospective, cross-sectional survey. Emergency medicine residents working in Türkiye who had no ongoing or concluded legal malpractice cases and had not received any psychiatric or psychological treatment within the past year were evaluated. Participation was voluntary. The participants were administered electronic surveys containing sociodemographic information, the Malpractice Fear Scale, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and the Defensive Medicine Behavior Scale. The collected data were analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program version 20.
Results: A total of 309 emergency medicine residents participated in the study, and 40.1% were female. Of the participants, 60.8% were in the 20–29 age group. The mean score on the Malpractice Fear Scale was 25.35, indicating a high level of fear. Concerning the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the scores for emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment were 21.30 (moderate), 10.52 (moderate), and 12.95 (low), respectively. A positive correlation was observed between MF, professional burnout, and defensive medicine practices. However, there was a negative correlation between defensive medicine tendencies and burnout levels
Conclusion: In current conditions, emergency medicine residents are driven toward professional burnout due to the fear of malpractice; however, they attempt to mitigate this burnout by adopting defensive medicine practices.

Keywords

burnout , emergency residents , defensive medicine , malpractice

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