Doctor Burnout

New research suggests doctor burnout is becoming a huge problem as nearly half of all physicians feel completely depleted to the point where 1 in 7 have even contemplated suicide. The USA has the highest suicide rate of any profession, the number of physician suicides is 28-40 per 100,000, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association.

On average 44% of the medical professionals in this survey have reported feeling stressed out to the point where they have considered leaving the field altogether; and a high percentage of these wiped out life savers are women according to the study involving 15,069 physicians in over 29 specialties, as published in the Medscape report.

These numbers haven’t really changed and the issue continues to be a trend despite increased wellness programs. The reason for the alarming numbers is reported to be the level of paperwork and data input required since medical records went digital. On average doctors end up spending about 45 minutes per patient visit to due tasks such as inputting data codes leaving little room for face to face time with patients.

47% of doctors reported depression as not affecting patient care, but 35% report finding themselves becoming exasperated with their patients, 26% report feeling less motivated to be careful when taking notes/history, and 14% report making errors that they normally would not have made. According to a report in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in general those who are depressed tend to exhibit more job loss, premature retirement, functional limitations, and absences. 13% report seeking help for their burnout or depression, 3% plan to, and 13% have in the past.

Among those who work in the medical field burnout is rather common, for doctors it can seem worse due to all of the schooling and training that they have taken feeling like it is a waste when most of their day is spent on typing codes into medical software. Brunilda Nazario suggests that she believes physicians don’t blame patients, that it is clear physicians feel this is a system wide health care situation.

In 2018 urologist reported the highest rate of burnout and depression at 54%, which was closely followed by neurologists at 53%, and physical medicine/rehabilitation at 52%. These rates change every year, but doctors who work the longest hours tend to have higher levels of burnout. The happiest doctors on the job were plastic surgery at 41%, followed by public health & preventive medicine at 40%, and ophthalmology at 39%, according to the survey.