Spain doctors report lower burnout among foreign staff amid sick‑leave controversy

A study published in BMC Medical Education examined burnout among physicians in the United States and the United Kingdom and found that foreign‑trained doctors reported about 35 percent lower odds of burnout compared with domestically trained physicians. The authors caution that the evidence is weak because of a small sample size and note possible explanations such as higher resilience among migrants, different tolerance to workload, and the challenges of visa, language and cultural adaptation.

In Spain, a commentary argues that physicians are being blamed for the country's high rate of sick‑leave usage, which is among the highest in Europe. The piece attributes the problem to government‑union agreements that allow six‑month extensions of medical leave with little oversight, rather than to doctors themselves, and calls for policy reform to address the disproportionate absenteeism.