Two out of five U.S. physicians experience burnout, citing bureaucratic tasks, long hours and the impact of healthcare reform as the top reasons.
Loss of enthusiasm for work, feelings of cynicism or a low sense of personal accomplishment were most prevalent among emergency medicine, critical care and family medicine physicians. That’s alarming because those doctors are often times the first point of patient contact and, in the case of emergency medicine and critical care physicians, deal with severely ill patients.
Building on a national survey published in the Archives of Internal Medicine last year which found that physicians were more burnt out at work than the average American, medical content site Medscape wanted to see whether life outside of practice influenced or was influenced by that stress. It surveyed 24,000 U.S. physician members and found that 40 percent were experiencing at least one symptom of burnout.
According to its Physician Lifestyle Report 2013, the physicians experiencing the most severe burnout (not the most frequent) are OB/GYN doctors, pathologists and critical care physicians. Burnout was most likely at mid-life; the lowest and youngest physician populations reported less.
Regardless of how much work stress they had, physicians reported their favorite pastimes were spending time with family, exercising and traveling.
When asked to write in prominent stressors, “patients” appeared post often, according to Medscape. The word cloud below shows other common stressors:
Research on whether physician stress manifests itself in patient care has not been particularly persuasive, but many physicians believe high stress could affect patient outcomes. It’s also been shown to affect patient satisfaction and job satisfaction among doctors.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
[Word cloud from Physician Lifestyle Report 2013]
