Feeling Burned Out? You Are Not Alone
Approximately 42% of physicians have reported experiencing burnout, while many others report feeling mild to severe bouts of depression, according to a recently published national report on physician burnout and depression.
In particular, the rate of burnout was found to be higher among women than men (48% vs 38%) and tended to increase significantly with age, reaching 50% among physicians aged 45 to 54 years.
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Burnout appeared to be especially prevalent among clinicians in fields such as critical care (48%), neurology (48%), and family medicine. The rate of combined burnout and depression was 14% among all physicians.
Finances, family, romantic relationships, personal health, and the job itself were all revealed to be contributing factors to burnout and depression among physicians. As a result, approximately 33% of physicians felt that they are more easily frustrated by patients, and 32% felt like they engaged with their patients less.
Notably, 14% of physicians with depression reported that their depression had led to medical errors that they wouldn’t normally make, some of which could potentially cause harm to their patients.
The report noted that physicians engage in a variety of outlets to cope with their feelings of burnout. Approximately 50% reported that they exercise to help reduce burnout, while many others reported eating junk food, drinking alcohol, and binge eating to cope (33%, 22%, and 20%, respectively).
When asked about which factors could improve their feelings of burnout, approximately 35% of physicians felt that increased compensation to avoid financial stress could ease their burdens, and 31% said that more manageable call hours and work schedules would help.
Awareness of the availability of workplace programs for burnout or stress was found to be 61% among respondents in academic, research, military, or government fields, 45% in hospital workers, and 17% in office-based single-specialty group practices.
—Christina Vogt
Reference:
Carol Peckham. Medscape national physician burnout & depression report 2018 [Published online January 17, 2018]. Medscape. https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/2018-lifestyle-burnout-depression-6009235?faf=1 - 1.
