Chapter 2 - The Burned-Out Physician

Summary

The prevalence of burnout among physicians and other healthcare providers is at distressingly high, record levels, such that burnout among practitioners may be fairly characterized as a crisis. While the medical career has many benefits and is widely respected, many of the requirements of the job, especially the growing workload, make it especially stressful. Plus, they have all the life-stressors outside work that others face. And, while burnout is identified as a workplace syndrome, stress is cumulative, adding up from any and all sources. Burned-out physicians will experience dysfunctional physical, psychological, and behavioral symptoms. Of the many troubling manifestations of burnout, medical error is an especially high-profile one that is receiving more and more attention, and which we will highlight in this book. While the focus of our book is mainly on physicians in the United States, the data are similar for nurses, medical students, physician assistants, pharmacists, and others in the healthcare enterprise, and the data are similar for healthcare providers outside the United States. The crisis of burnout among healthcare providers has been greatly intensified by the global pandemic.