GeneralHospitals4 Innovative Approaches To Mitigate Physician Burnout

Physicians play a crucial role in saving lives and keeping patients healthy daily. However, family responsibilities, personal issues, and overloaded work schedules often take a toll on them, causing physician burnout.

Career fatigue is more prevalent among doctors compared to other types of workers in the United States. Of about 7,000 physicians surveyed in a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 41% reported at least one symptom of experiencing burnout.

Given the nature of their profession, mitigating physician burnout is crucial in their effort to save lives. A doctor who’s exhausted at all levels won’t be able to function well. If you want to gain more insights into this issue, consider the following points in understanding burnout, why it might happen, and a few ways to alleviate its symptoms.

What Is Burnout?

A 2018 review of US healthcare professionals’ burnout rates has indicated that more than half of doctors and a third of nurses have shown symptoms. According to the paper, burnout is long-term job stress triggered by several factors, including severe fatigue, cynicism, and perceived inefficacy.

Clinical psychologist Herbert Freudenberger was first to notice and name this condition in 1974 while volunteering at a free clinic for drug dependents. Freudenberger observed that his co-volunteers displayed emotional exhaustion and psychosomatic symptoms from ‘excessive energy, strength, or resources demands.’ He then identified the burnout symptoms as discomfort, tiredness, frustration, skepticism, and inefficacy.

In 1981, social psychologist Christina Maslach, then a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, created a model called the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Developing Freudenberger’s work further, MBI measures occupational burnout in three categories: emotional exhaustion, self-detachment, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment. MBI is the most common tool used in measuring burnout levels, especially at work.

Potential Causes Of Burnout 

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) under the US Department of Health and Human Services conducted a study called Minimizing Error, Maximizing Outcome, or MEMO, and discovered the following:

• More than half of physicians involved in primary care reported experiencing stress because of time pressure and other work conditions, especially when performing physical examinations.
• In facilities that provided low-quality care, the issue was organizational rather than doctors experiencing burnout.
• The implementation of electronic health records (EHR) may also have contributed to exhaustion. The agency has launched another study called Minimizing Stress, Maximizing Success of the EHR to discuss the issue further, including presenting recommendations to alleviate EHR-induced stress among physicians.
• Physicians affected by burnout reportedly cited a chaotic work environment, uncontrollable work pace, and unpleasing organizational culture as the key factors that influence clinicians’ dissatisfaction, stress, burnout, and desire to leave the job.

4 Innovative Ways To Mitigate Physician Burnout   

One of the more effective ways to mitigate physician burnout is for organizations to create a workplace environment that’s more friendly to clinicians and their families, based on the AHRQ study mentioned earlier. The paper also found that doctors are less stressed when their salaries don’t rely on productivity, they have better control over clinical matters, are not time-bound, and can balance their work and family lives.

There are many ways to achieve this, but healthcare organizations may consider these less conventional solutions:

1. Improve EHR Systems

There’s a misconception that doctors now have time for themselves because of telemedicine and the advent of other  popular healthcare apps. However, as the AHRQ study found out, the opposite may be true. Electronic health records (EHR) often add to the administrative work that clinicians need to do. Reducing the time required for updating and maintaining EHR could include the following:

• Streamlining and automating other processes that reduce the physician’s involvement (for instance, in filling out administrative entries)
• Facilities can also hire medical scribes to ease doctors’ administrative and technological burden.
• Allowing optimization capabilities to enhance data management systems for accurate and easily accessible health records in the workplace
• Using natural language processing (NLP) for creating unstructured notes and determining and summarizing information
• Employing artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning to improve and assist in diagnostic procedures and predicting potential health problems

Besides streamlining EHR systems, physicians can be trained further in using these technologies to help reduce time spent on the computer.

2. Offer Flexible Work Times

Doctors often work long hours, partly because there’s a lack of physicians worldwide. Working overtime is deemed one of the main reasons clinicians easily get burnt out. But cutting their shifts may create an opposite effect. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), physicians feel pressured if their working hours are limited. The premier doctors’ group found that clinicians working shorter shifts are more stressed because they need to finish their regular tasks in a shorter period.

Some physicians may need more time to finish their work. So, organizations may consider implementing flexible work arrangements not to promote overtime but to give physicians who need more time to complete their tasks. Additionally, the AMA encourages a time-banking system, where doctors who work overtime can gain additional incentives that enhance work-life balance.

3. Institutionalize Stress-Reduction Programs

Individuals have different stress resiliency levels. In addition, different types of stress-reducing methods impact a person differently. Among these, mindfulness meditation seems to show favorable results in most participants. For instance, a clinical trial for a group of primary care physicians revealed that their participation in a mindful communication program contributed to enhanced well-being and a more positive approach towards patient care.

Typically, mindful meditation involves yoga, proper breathing techniques, body scanning, and other methods. Healthcare facilities can offer these to their medical staff as part of their self-care strategies. Organizations may also consider forming a committee to oversee employees’ well-being.

4. Seek Community Involvement

Some physicians may find it scary to care for patients and communicate with their families, especially during these challenging times. However, as the private sector in many countries has shown, expressing support to the medical staff can go a long way in boosting their morale and increasing their motivation.

The community, patients, and their families can write letters and short messages addressed to physicians and medical workers to encourage them to take care of themselves, offer different types of support, or thank them for a job well done.

Doctors often become stressed in trying to ensure patient satisfaction. Rather than rating a physician’s services online, it’s also better to show your physician how much you appreciate the experience of being taken care of on both personal and professional levels.

The Bottom Line 

Physician burnout is a critical issue that needs to be addressed rather than swept under the rug. Healthcare facilities should determine the causes of long-term occupational stress to prevent damaging consequences to the healthcare system.

Apart from enabling individual stress-coping mechanisms, organizations must intervene and establish burnout-mitigating measures to protect their invaluable medical workforce. After all, without them, the healthcare system will come to a standstill.