AAD
Author: Willhemenia Loremipsum Special session: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet Category: Lorem ipsum View all results

Please login or create an account. If you do not have access to this content, you will be shown a 30 second preview and licensing options.

  • Presentation

Physician Wellness and Burnout: Causes, Consequences, and Strategies to Combat It

Description

The talk explains physician wellness and burnout as an important issue affecting patient care, especially in healthcare and among physicians, where burnout remains around 45% even though it has improved slightly since COVID. Burnout is described as a work-related syndrome marked by emotional and physical exhaustion, depersonalization or cynicism, and reduced sense of accomplishment. Drivers include heavy workload, lack of control, poor transparency, inadequate recognition, EHR-related after-hours charting, administrative burden, regulatory pressure, weak work-life integration, moral distress, isolation, and broader political or cultural mistrust of doctors. Consequences can include depression, substance use, poorer self-care, lower quality of life, strained relationships, medical errors, reduced patient satisfaction, turnover, higher costs, and erosion of trust in healthcare. The speaker emphasizes that combating burnout requires both individual and system-level strategies: basic self-care such as sleep, nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, journaling, gratitude, micro-breaks, nature, and social connection; plus organizational changes like wellness surveys, leadership transparency, physician input, more scheduling control, efficiency improvements, and reducing administrative friction. The talk also highlights local quality-improvement efforts, wellness committees, identifying “lo-fi” problems such as in-basket overload, and professional coaching as a promising intervention that improved burnout. The speaker closes by noting personal practices that help her wellness, including time with family and enjoyable activities.

View more

Conclusions

  • Physician burnout is common, worsened during COVID-19, and remains at roughly the mid-40% range for physicians, including dermatologists.
  • Burnout is driven by both systemic pressures and individual circumstances, but the presentation emphasizes that organizational factors are major contributors and should not be ignored.
  • The main consequences of burnout include emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, reduced personal accomplishment, and self-doubt.
  • Burnout harms both physicians and patients by increasing depression, substance use, relationship strain, turnover, costs, medical errors, and erosion of trust.
  • Traditional individual-only wellness advice is insufficient because it can inadvertently place blame on physicians instead of addressing workplace causes.
  • Basic self-care, mindfulness, social connection, nature, mentorship, and professional coaching can help at the individual level, but their effects are incomplete when used alone.
  • Mindfulness interventions may improve some well-being outcomes, but the evidence suggests mixed and limited effects on burnout itself.
  • System-level solutions are essential and include leadership accountability, wellness strategy, clinic efficiency improvements, reduced administrative burden, greater transparency, and more physician control.
  • A chief wellness officer and ongoing measurement through wellness surveys can help institutions track burnout and make wellness a visible operational priority.
  • Small workflow fixes identified through local listening, sorting, and empowering teams to act can meaningfully improve morale and reduce frustration.
  • Improving EMR efficiency, including the use of AI tools and scribes, is a promising way to reduce after-hours work and burnout.
  • Professional coaching appears to be an effective intervention, with pilot data showing reductions in emotional exhaustion and overall burnout among participating physicians.
  • Addressing Health Worker Burnout: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on Building a Thriving Health Workforce. 2022.
  • Shanafelt, T. Physician Distress & Well-being: State of the Problem and Framework for Solutions. 2024.#10.1176/appi.books.9781615379415
  • Shanafelt T, et al. Mayo Clin Proc. 2017.
  • Han et al. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2019.
  • Shanafelt et al. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2017.
  • Trockel M et al. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2024.
  • Dyrbye L, et al. Natl Acad Med. 2018.
  • Taylor et al., 2022.
  • Joshi et al., 2022.