Aim: Aim of this study was to determine the rate of burnout among family physicians and to identify the contributing factors behind it.

Material-Methods: This descriptive study was conducted among family physicians working in the city center of Kayseri in 2013.
All 280 family physicians who worked in the city center were included in the study and 143 of them participated (51.1%). Physicians were given a questionnaire containing 24 questions and Maslach Burnout Inventory. Study has been approved by the ethics committee of Erciyes University. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: The mean working year of the family physicians was 19.0±5.4 years. Out of 143 physicians, 83.9% were working in family practice since family practitioner scheme was introduced. 53.2% of them stated that being a family physician was very suitable/suitable for them. The mean emotional exhaustion score, depersonalization score and personal accomplishment score were 16.1±7.2, 4.3±3.2 and 21.0±3.7. There were no differences between the burnout scores according to gender, marital status and the presence of a diagnosed health problem (p>0.05). The emotional exhaustion (p<0.001), depersonalization (p<0.05) and total exhaustion (p<0.001) scores of the physicians who stated their work load and work stress increased and who were not satisfied with their working place were higher than the others. The emotional burnout scores were lower for the physicians who stated that family medicine was appropriate for them (p=0,004), they were glad to be in the family practice (p<0.001) and their expectations were met (p<0.001). There was no correlation between the total professional years and any burnout score (p>0.05). A low positive correlation was found between the duration of working in the family practice and emotional and total burnout scores (p<0.05). Fulfillment of expectations and workload was found as the two most important factors affecting motional and total burnout scores.

Conclusion: The majority of family physicians have been thinking that family practice has increased the rival between physicians, the work load stress, and ethical degeneration, decreased the time spared for their social life and professional development. A positive correlation has been found between the duration of working in family practice and the emotional and total burnout scores.

Keywords: family physician, burnout, primary care