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Physician Burnout Pervasive: 1 in 2 Internists Affected
How to prevent the problem from worsening, and dissuading more students from choosing medicine for a career and in pushing older doctors to retire early or go into non-clinical medical professions is the challenge, West says.
He says that he and his co-authors feel strongly that numerous segments of society need to accept responsibility to fix the practice of medicine, from academic teaching institutions, to administrators, to those who impose paperwork requirements that doctors see as overwhelming.
"We need to figure out better ways to help physicians remember why they got into medicine in the first place, and to understand that the (mantra of the) culture of medicine that we're all invincible is flawed. We all need to understand that physicians are human.
See Also:
4 Strategies for Fed-Up Physicians
1 in 3 Physicians Plans to Quit Within 10 Years
Hospital Infections Linked to Burned Out Nurses
Don't Underestimate Damage Caused by Burned Out Nurses
Cheryl Clark is senior quality editor and California correspondent for HealthLeaders Media. She is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists.
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Comments are moderated. Please be patient.
Dike Drummond MD (8/29/2012 at 12:15 PM)
The literature on burnout over the last 20 years is completely consistent with this study. 1 in 3 doctors on average are suffering from symptomatic burnout on any given office day. These statistics are worldwide, regardless of the docotor's specialty OR the type of healthcare delivery system. The biggest cause is the conditioning of our healthcare educational system which effectively installs a survival mechanism in all doctors that has four key components. Workaholic Superhero Emotion Free Lone Ranger This is a key set of skills we all must use to survive training and NOT a great way to live a life. It is this programming that is primarily responsible for the epidemic of burnout we see in medicine. The additional post-graduation stresses of "the business of medicine", our complete lack of functional leadership skills and the uncertainties of political "reform" and the changing practice landscape - 75% of doctors are projected to be employees by 2013 - not to mention raising a family with this #800 gorilla of a career. It is a recipe for this dysfunction. Where do we go from here? It is a multifactorial answer. The doctors need the skills to lower stress and prevent burnout as individuals. That is why I created my website. We know what works to create a more resilient doctor and prevent burnout and it is rarely taught in the standard medical school and residency curriculum. And organizations bear a large responsibility because it is so darn easy to focus on the patient .... and not see that - in healthcare especially - the health and wellbeing of the provider has a direct impact on the quality and healing at the level of the patient. We have a moral, ethical and business imperative to support the wellness of the providers and not treat doctors like piece workers on a production line. These are immensely important topics that deserve more than a blog comment to do them justice. If you REALLY want to explore this issue in a way that has a chance to create meaningful change. Please contact me through my website. The doctors are the canary in the coal mine of modern healthcare ... unfortunately that same canary is the one coordinating the care of everyone in your system... and we cannot afford to let them drop. My two cents, Dike Dike Drummond MD TheHappyMD (dot) com
Marc Boisvert (8/24/2012 at 9:50 AM)
This study brings to light in a formal way and validates what many of us have been feeling for a long time. Our professional representative organizations should be tasked to keep this information in the public eye and hammer it home in every discussion of health care reform.
Randall Oates, M.D. (8/23/2012 at 6:12 AM)
If the proper EHR is implemented in the proper fashion, the results are a reduction in physician stress and better patient care. Unfortunately, almost all EMR products are actually designed to either turn doctors into distracted data trolls or encourage them to throw in globs of garbage information (i.e. templates containing multiple data items that may or may not actually have been validated). Soon, we will look at the current, common approach to selecting and implementing an EHR as the insanity that it is. A proper approach actually removes distractions interfering with the doctor-patient interaction which improves the experience for both while improving the quality of care and the capacity of the physician to see more patients without getting on a "hamster wheel."