Physician burnout is a hot topic in research, but not in practice. Lets get active in decreasing our levels of work related stress and anxiety.
Physicians have been experiencing an increase in anxiety and depression for some time now and now, and after the 2020 pandemic we are at an all time low when it comes to workplace satisfaction.
The physical well being of physician is being crushed as a result of burnout.
Long hours, hectic schedules, and massive time commitments to EMR leaves no time for personal self-care routines such as exercise or mental clarity exercises.
This leads to overweight and unhealthy doctors which speaks volumes about the value of health in our healthcare system.
This is not what doctors signed up for when they dedicated their life to helping others.
In this article we will go over what physicians are actually going through and provide some actionable solutions to the problem that you can implement in your life today!.
What is physician burnout
Physician burnout is characterized by high levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization according to Melnyk et al. This can lead to psychological and/or physical distress.
A physician experiencing burnout may present with loss of enthusiasm for work, feeling helpless, trapped, and defeated.
Multiple studies have shown a high prevalence of burnout among physicians and shown that up to one third of physicians experience burnout at certain times in their careers2.
Physician burnout and medical errors
Burnout’s effect on a doctor’s mental health has been linked to an increase in medical errors.
A systematic review indicated that 50% of physicians experience burnout with 25% of them having depression. This depression was the leading cause of medical errors, which is the third leading cause of death in America3.
Medical errors combined with the personal issues induced by burnout makes it very apparent that doctors need to take this issue seriously.
How to overcome physician burnout
There is a clear problem that needs to be addressed not just by the physician themselves, but by the entire system.
Burnout is a result of policies and practices way outside the control of the physician themselves. This leads to a feeling of no control or autonomy over the way a physician may practice.
While this topic may seem very nebulous and it may seem easy to blame the system and cast away any personal responsibility. There are many actions doctors can take today to overcome burnout themselves.
This isn’t blaming the individual, but instead taking advantage of what the individual actually has control over by incorporating strategies for increased autonomy.
1. Exercise
Yeah like you have never heard of this one before right?
But, This is something that you need to take very seriously. Exercise has been shown to improve mood, decrease stress, anxiety, and depression.
It doesn’t take several hours a day to get the results either. It could be a simple 15 min walk in the stairwell during a break in the hospital.
Aerobic exercise has been shown to have the greatest effect on mental health. It leads to an increase in Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factors (BDNF) leading to increased mental health and neuroplasticity.
Decrease levels of BDNF has been associated with several psychiatric disorders including depression4.
Levels can be increased by performing moderate exercise for 30min. Doing this a couple times a week would be the holistic approach to decreasing stress.
This could also lead to an increased ability to adapt to circumstances thereby increasing resilience.
An increase in resilience has been shown to be correlated with a decrease in physician burnout according to West 2020.
Lastly, you can achieve these benefits through strength training 2-3x per week which has been shown to decrease anxiety, depression, as well as increase resilience.
Mindfulness based training
You may have heard of mindfulness before, but maybe you’re unsure of exactly what it is.
Mindfulness is a mental awareness strategy where you focus on being intensely aware of what you are sensing or feeling.
Mindfulness training has a negative correlation to stress and burnout outcome measures. Meaning that an increase in mindfulness has been shown to decrease stress and burnout.
Different mindfulness techniques include yoga, meditation, journaling, breathing exercises, and working with a mindfulness coach.
In real life this looks like:
- Starting and/or finishing the day with a deep breathing technique such as 4 sec inhale followed by 4s exhale for 3-5min.
- Taking a moment after a stressful situation to just be aware of your feelings and relieve yourself of stressful thoughts.
- Or journaling the positive and negative aspects of your day as a way to cope with adversity and also have gratitude at the same time.
Get a FREE Training To Beat Burnout
Physician burnout is a big deal. There is nothing I like more than seeing one of my clients who feels like they have no control become empowered and take their life back.
This is why I combined the main points from my health coaching curriculum and created a FREE Anti-Burnout training video to help you overcome what you are dealing with.
When you attend this training you will:
Learn how you can use behavioral modification and mindfulness to completely 180 your life and have complete autonomy over your lifestyle.
Understand how to use functional movement to decrease stress, improve body composition, and increase longevity for your career and life.
Learn how to use the power of food to assist your mindfulness and movement based lifestyle modifications to accomplish any goal from weight loss to stress reduction.
Click here if you want access to this FREE Anti-Burnout training
Melnyk BM, Kelly SA, Stephens J, Dhakal K, McGovern C, Tucker S, Hoying J, McRae K, Ault S, Spurlock E, Bird SB. Interventions to Improve Mental Health, Well-Being, Physical Health, and Lifestyle Behaviors in Physicians and Nurses: A Systematic Review. Am J Health Promot. 2020 Nov;34(8):929-941. doi: 10.1177/0890117120920451. Epub 2020 Apr 27. PMID: 32338522.
Romani, M., & Ashkar, K. (2014). Burnout among physicians. The Libyan journal of medicine, 9, 23556. https://doi.org/10.3402/ljm.v9.23556
Melnyk BM, Orsolini L, Tan A, et al. A national study links nurses’ physical and mental health to medical errors and perceived worksite wellness. J Occup Environ Med. 2018;60(2):126-131. doi:10.1097/JOM.0000000000001198.
West, C. P., Dyrbye, L. N., Sinsky, C., Trockel, M., Tutty, M., Nedelec, L., Carlasare, L. E., & Shanafelt, T. D. (2020). Resilience and Burnout Among Physicians and the General US Working Population. JAMA network open, 3(7), e209385. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.9385
Chin-Chuen Lin, Tiao-Lai Huang, Brain-derived neurotrophic factor and mental disorders, Biomedical Journal, Volume 43, Issue 2, 2020, Pages 134-142, ISSN 2319-4170, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bj.2020.01.001.