After finishing work at Liverpool Hospital at 10:00pm one evening, neurosurgery registrar Dr Tom Morrison was called in to work from 11:00pm to 3:00am before starting his next shift at 7:00 that morning.<\/p>\n
This was not an isolated incident, with many doctors working more than their rostered hours, says the Junior Vice President of the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (ASMOF), who now works at The Children\u2019s Hospital at Westmead.<\/p>\n
Junior doctors are often on call while juggling study<\/a>, research and career progression, making work-life balance difficult \u2014 especially for those with family commitments, he says.<\/p>\n Postgraduate medical trainees score worse than average across three domains used to measure burnout, recent research<\/a> shows.<\/p>\n So, is junior doctor burnout inevitable, or can you have a life as well?<\/p>\n Long working hours are common for junior doctors in Australia<\/p>\n Registrars in New South Wales (NSW) average 54.8 hours per week, with 17.3% clocking up 70 hours or more, an ASMOF survey found<\/a>. In South Australia, 24% of doctors in training work over 50 hours per week<\/a>, and half report heavy or very heavy workloads.<\/p>\n Similarly, 45% of respondents in Ahpra\u2019s 2025 Medical Training Survey<\/a>, which attracted responses from over 18,000 trainees, said their workload was heavy or very heavy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dr Emma Hodge, a Queensland doctor completing specialist training in medical administration, says the demands on junior doctors can be intense.<\/p>\n \u201cFor many, work often extends beyond rostered hours, whether that\u2019s finishing clinical tasks, preparing for the next rotation or studying after a long day,\u201d says Dr Hodge, who led statewide research on doctor\u00a0wellbeing, burnout and professional fulfilment<\/a>.<\/p>\n Shift work, overtime and the emotional responsibility of caring for patients can displace everything else, she adds.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring particularly busy periods, it was easy for me to unintentionally stop doing many activities which normally help me recharge, like exercising and catching up with friends.\u201d<\/p>\n A culture of unpaid overtime<\/p>\n With all this work, you\u2019d think junior doctors would be making great money. But many are not being fully remunerated, data suggests.\u00a0<\/p>\n 12% of doctors in Ahpra\u2019s training survey said they never get paid for unrostered overtime, and 19% never claim it.<\/p>\n In NSW, where doctors in training earn the least<\/a>, only 45% of ASMOF\u2019s survey respondents had claimed all their overtime \u2014 with many citing a strong cultural pressure against doing so.<\/p>\n In Queensland, 19% of residents reported being explicitly advised not to claim overtime payments<\/a>, while 38% of over 1300 junior doctors in Western Australia said systemic or cultural pressure was the main thing stopping them claiming overtime<\/a>.<\/p>\n Why work-life balance is difficult for hospital doctors in Australia<\/p>\n Junior doctors are balancing rigorous professional expectations with the realities of life, Dr Hodge notes.<\/p>\n \u201cMany are relocating for training opportunities, reapplying for jobs each year, studying for specialist examinations and making significant life decisions \u2014 such as buying a first home or starting a family \u2014 all while working physically and emotionally demanding jobs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n It can be hard to switch off, she says, especially while you\u2019re still developing clinical confidence, adapting to shift work, and making key career decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s common to revisit your workday while driving home, wondering whether you did everything right. While this reflects the commitment many doctors have to providing safe, quality patient care, it can also make it challenging to maintain clear boundaries between work and personal life.\u201d<\/p>\n Systemic change needed to mitigate risk of junior doctor burnout<\/p>\n Dr Morrison says the onus to change rests on the system driving the problem, not individual doctors working within it.<\/p>\n