4 Questions to Ask About Physician Burnout

Over the past year, while the rates of burnout have risen, I have had the privilege of speaking with over a thousand physicians about this subject. The discussions have been revealing.

Every one of the doctors with whom I’ve spoken acknowledged the problem, and the majority of them admitted they felt burned out to some extent. Many expressed loss of the sense of professional accomplishment which they once felt, and they longed for change. But almost none of them could imagine there was any other way to practice medicine.

In other words, they popped their head out of the sand for a moment, saw danger, and buried their heads again.

Yes, it’s a harsh metaphor, but it’s apt.

Burnout is a real problem, as big as any other healthcare issue we face today. Physicians are the foundation of the house of medicine. Without doctors, there is no healthcare. Beneath the surface of hospitals and offices across the country, the foundation of the house is rotting away.

Large institutions, like the healthcare system, seem like loaded freight trains — slow to get moving, difficult to stop, impossible to steer, and unable to change directions unless someone else throws a switch.

In truth, all large institutions are made of individuals, like schools of fish. Each of us has the ability to turn on a dime. And when we do, we change the systems around us.

Medicine needs its fish to change direction.

Burnout is not fault of the individual physician — sociology research shows that the root of burnout lies within organizations and systems — but decision to tolerate burnout, once it has been recognized, is made by individuals. The ability and responsibility to change lies with each of us.

As you read the new burnout statistics, rather than avoiding the issue, ask some tough questions, like:

• What does widespread burnout say about medical training? How does the practice of medicine transform intelligent, dedicated young adults into disillusioned doctors who tolerate an unsatisfactory status quo?
• What does the way the burnout epidemic has been allowed to spread say about our doctors? About our healthcare system?
• Can we get the care we want and deserve when so many physicians are discontent?
• What legacy will this generation of discouraged and disconnected physicians leave? Will there be anyone left to teach the next generation of doctors?

Do I have all the answers to these questions? No, of course not. No one does. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be asked. Because unless we ask the questions in the first place, we will never find the answers.