Introduction:
To understand the status quo of doctors’ occupational burnout, analyze the correlation between the occupational burnout and cognition of tensity of doctor-patient relationship (DPR).

Material and methods:
Take 265 doctors in a general hospital in China as respondents, conduct a survey of the degree of occupational burnout with Maslach Burnout Inventory, score the cognitive quantification of DPR tensity with Difficult Doctor-Patient Relationship Questionnaire-8, and analyze the correlation between them. The cognitive quantitative scores of DPR tensity were also given to 782 inpatients and compared with the doctors’ cognitive scores.

Results:
The degrees of occupational burnout in doctors, including three dimensions of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and sense of personal achievement, were high. The proportions of moderate or more burnout were 49.8%, 53.2% and 48.7%, respectively. There was a statistical difference in occupational burnout among doctors of different ages and professional titles (P<0.05). Doctors’ cognition of DPR tensity was significantly worse than patients’ cognition (P<0.01). The degrees of emotional exhaustion and dehumanization were positively correlated with the poor cognition of DPR tensity in doctors (P<0.001). The degree of sense of personal achievement was negatively correlated with the poor cognition in doctors (P<0.001).

Conclusions:
Doctors’ age and professional title are important factors that affect the high degree of occupational burnout. Doctors do not have positive cognition of DPR tensity, which is different from that of patiens. The degree of occupational burnout is closely related to the poor cognition of DPR tensity in doctors.