Avoid Burnout: Know the Symptoms; Grants for CSF

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What should affected doctors do about burnout? 

Catherine Miller, RN, JD: Those most directly responsible for health and healing tend to forego the very treatment they themselves would recommend to any patient. Physicians need to pay attention to their symptoms and do whatever it takes to restore work-life balance—including seeking professional help. Medicine’s culture of invincibility has made it difficult for physicians to attend to their basic mental health needs. The danger is, if unaddressed, there’s a risk of severe depression and a host of other serious personal and professional sequelae. Organizations concerned about physician health and well-being can adopt a proactive approach to identifying burnout among their medical staff by administering anonymous surveys and by investigating other telltale signs of struggle, including reports of behavioral changes or perhaps a decline in performance or patient satisfaction scores. Hospitals and medical groups can also promote wellness by offering education and resource information via their Physician Health & Wellbeing Committees, whose charter is to assist physicians struggling with behavioral issues, substance abuse, addiction, and mental health challenges.

Ultimately, it’s necessary to make workplace improvements to lighten or streamline physician workload. I recently spoke with an Emergency Department (ED) Chief who was very aware of the workplace challenges of his physician staff. In addition to caring for patients in an impacted ED, the physicians complained about the burdens of documenting in the electronic health record, which was adding extra hours and stress to an already demanding shift. This Chief is currently exploring the benefits of using scribes in the ER to free-up physicians so they can focus on their patients. Being responsive to the sources of physician job dissatisfaction and identifying improvement opportunities is one way of advocating for physicians, preventing burnout, and ensuring that patient’s receive best possible care from their providers. n

Catherine Miller, RN, JD, a Senior Risk Management & Patient Safety Specialist for the Cooperative of American Physicians, Inc (CAP) in Los Angeles, spoke with us about physician burnout— characterized by emotional exhaustion and loss of enthusiasm for work, feelings of cynicism, and reduced performance. She addressed why we are seeing more of it today, and importantly what doctors can do to avoid or reverse it. To read the full interview, check out the May/June edition of Modern Aesthetics® available online at ModernAesthetics.com in June.