If you’ve been feeling burnout at work recently, you’re not alone, as workers in several fields are struggling to find the proper work life balance. Among those struggling is one position that could have dangerous implications: doctors.
Since the 2020 pandemic, physician burnout has been a major topic, with doctors facing pressure to save lives, navigate a changing landscape in the world of health care, and now deal with new political pressures.
By the end of 2021, a wave of exhaustion began to take hold, as the American Medical Association warned that nearly 63% of physicians are experiencing symptoms of burnout at least once every week. Over the summer, that number fell to 48.2%, the first time it had been below 50% in four years.
But, while data shows things are improving, the amount of doctors feeling burnout is still above workers in other fields, asa Society for Human Resource Management survey found that, on average, 44% of workers are burnt out.
Dr. Bill Baer is one of the physicians and has practiced internal medicine for over 30 years. He shared with the AMA that after experiencing burnout, he left his private practice, WILX reported.
With rising demands on doctors to see more patients and manage growing administrative tasks, Baer said that the work became too much, forcing him to leave the profession.
“When you go home at night after putting in a long day, you may still have 3 hours of documentation or paperwork and answering messages to go through,” Baer said. “You start sacrificing family time and self-enjoyment.”
While there have been improvements, situations like Baer’s continue to become less common. On top of that, the trend could get worse as fewer doctors are being trained than will be required to take care of an aging population.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, by 2036, the US will be short an estimated 86,000 physicians.
Throw in the lack of nurses and other healthcare professionals, and the situation could become worse even sooner.
AMA President Dr. Bruce A. Scott shared in a podcast on Monday that the organization was working to address physician burnout and support doctors by addressing several other issues they face daily.
“Well, all the issues we’ve already talked about—reforming the Medicare payment system, fixing prior authorization, stopping the unacceptable expansion of scope of practice, and all of that coming together to hopefully reduce burnout among physicians,” Scott said. “Those are all going to remain top priorities for us because those are really the issues that impact our patients and physicians all around the United States every day.”