Hewitt DB, Ellis RJ, Hu YY, et al. - Physician burnout is a serious issue, which is linked with physician attrition, mental and physical health, and self-reported medical errors. In healthcare, measurement of burnout is typically done by assessing the frequency of symptoms in 2 domains, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Due to the lack of a clinically diagnostic threshold to define burnout, considerable variability is observed in reported burnout rates. Researchers here determined the prevalence of burnout using a range of definitions (ie, requiring symptoms in both domains or just 1) and thresholds (ie, requiring symptoms to occur weekly vs a few times per year) and ascertained how the various burnout definitions and thresholds associate with prevalence and wellness outcomes. They administered a cross-sectional national survey of clinically active US general surgery residents in conjunction with the 2019 American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination to determine burnout symptoms, thoughts of attrition, and suicidal thoughts during the past year. This national study was performed among 6,956 general surgery residents; variation in burnout prevalence estimates from 3.2% to 91.4% was noted depending on the selected burnout definition. Significant association of frequent burnout symptoms with thoughts of both attrition and suicide was observed; this was noted regardless of the definition selected. These findings emphasize including a clear description of the burnout definition used and the justification for its use in research on burnout.