Thursday, April 11, 2019

Physician Burnout is Rising

Physicians have higher levels of burnout than the general US population. There are several proposed factors for this higher prevalence although none have been proven beyond doubt.

In addition to higher prevalence, the prevalence is increasing raising concerns for the health of some of the highly educated and skilled professionals in our society. A recent study found that the prevalence of burnout in a large academic medical center faculty increased from 40.6% to 45.6%. Both domains of burnout increased; exhaustion increased from 52.9% to 57.7% while depersonalization increased from 44.8% to 51.1%.

Other things that changed were that fewer physicians in 2017 felt that they had control over their schedules than in 2014 (71.6% vs. 64.3%), felt that they had could impact decision making that affects day to day practice (58.7% vs. 55.4%)  and were satisfied with their workload (55% vs. 50.5%).

Authors also validated a finding from prior studies that early-career physicians are more susceptible to burnout than mid-career physicians. However, they did not find a difference in burnout by gender or by race.

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