Physician Burnout: Impacts and Assessment Tools

Burnout is pervasive throughout the medical community. Almost half of medical students, residents, and practicing physicians report symptoms of burnout (JAMA 2018). More specifically, 41% of pediatricians report feeling burned out (Medscape 2019).

Pediatric Burnout (PDF)

Gender differences in burnout

Women physicians experience the struggles with work-life integration differently than their male counterparts. They often report higher responsibility of home chores or duties. They struggle accessing mentors, leadership positions and often report higher rates of burnout, sometimes as high as 60%. (NAM 2019)

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What is burnout?

Burnout is a state of chronic stress that leads to:

Emotional exhaustion
Cynicism
Feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment
Detachment from patients, work, family

Male physicians experience detachment more often. Women physicians experience higher rates of emotional exhaustion.

There are many influencers of physician burnout such as time pressure, administrative burden, excessive work hours, intense and unsupportive work environment, threat of malpractice suits, difficult patients, and sleep deprivation

Top 3 reasons pediatricians report very or moderately stressed:

Catching up with work at home
Documenting patient info into EHR
Completing nonclinical activities

*Source: AAP PLACES Check Point Survey, 2017 (n=1,242)

Am I Experiencing Burnout?

Signs of Burnout:

Fatigue
Trouble falling or staying asleep
Difficulty concentrating or paying attention
Loss of appetite
Anxiety
Headaches
Muscle tension
Increased illness
Anger
Depression
Loss of enjoyment: Not wanting to go to work or eager to leave
Pessimism
Isolation
Detachment
Increased irritability
Lack of productivity

Burnout Impacts

Physician Health

Burnout can leave you feeling fatigued, inattentive, and irritable. It has also been shown to increase the risk of motor vehicle crashes, mood disorders, depression and substance abuse.

Resources:

Patient Care

Burnout can affect how well pediatricians are able to care for their patients. Burnout has been associated with reduced patient satisfaction, patient following medical advice and increased medical errors. Burned out physicians often order more tests and prescriptions.

Healthcare Costs

Burnout can lead to higher healthcare administration costs. Physicians experiencing burnout are likely to reduce their work effort to part-time as their only coping strategy. Studies show that every one-point increase in the likelihood physicians will reduce their professional work effort (Shanafelt T. The Business Case for Investing in Physician Well-Being JAMA Internal Medicine 2017).

Burnout has also been shown to be a major driver of physician turnover. Turnover creates recruitment costs as well as loses from onboarding, open positions and the time it takes for a replacement to reach optimal efficiency.

Studies have shown the cost to replace a physician is 2-3 times the MD's annual salary. – Shanafelt: The Business Case for Investing in Physician Well-Being AMA Internal Medicine 2017

How can I assess my own burnout?

Below are a few tools and resources to help you determine if you are feeling burned out.

Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) for Medical Personnel: Recognized as the leading measure of burnout, the Maslach BurnoutInventoryTM (MBI) is validated by the extensive research that has been conducts in more than 35 years since its initial publication.

Mini-Z Survey: 11 questions focusing on work satisfaction/engagement from the Physician Worklife Study, MEMO study and Healthy Workplace study.

Well-Being Index: The Well-Being Indexes were invented by the Mayo Clinic. These anonymous, web-based tools evaluate dimensions of distress with 9 questions.

Last Updated

01/12/2023

Source

American Academy of Pediatrics