Healthy Habits: Burnout in Physicians

Physicians carry a crucial role within society when it comes to the health of us all, but thanks to the added stress and taxing work conditions covid has brought physicians, it can be hard for them to stay well themselves. Even doctors who love their jobs can find themselves overworked and burned out.

Dr. Gail Gazelle MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Master Certified Coach for physicians lists her 5 reasons why physicians experience burnout and how they can avoid it. 

“Unfortunately, 1 in 2 physicians experience burnout, causing painful emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and disconnection from a sense of meaning and purpose. Not only does this erode their own well-being but numerous studies document that physician burnout contributes to increased medical errors, decreased empathy for patients, and physician shortages due to attrition from the profession. The good news is that there are simple steps physicians can take to build resilience and avoid burnout.,” says Dr. Gazelle.

Reason #1: Medicine is a high stakes profession
Let’s face it, it doesn’t get much more high stakes than taking care of fellow human beings! With this great responsibility comes stress and worry. While this is part of the job, physicians have to learn how to balance this stress and responsibility with positive things that enable them to cultivate more resilience and wellbeing.

Reason #2: Physicians learn to be very self-critical
Much of our training is focused on how we compare to others, and the emphasis is typically on where we are coming up short. Often, no matter how many things go well, the physician finds themself focusing on the one thing that went awry. They don’t learn to stay focused on all the good they are doing. Focusing on the good is a powerful way to avoid burnout and boost mental health.

Reason #3: Physicians learn to be compassionate to patients, but not to themselves
While it’s critically important to be compassionate toward patients, the work of the physician is so demanding that physicians need compassion too. When all the compassion is directed toward patients, basically the physician is giving themselves the message that others are deserving of care and compassion, but not them. Over time, this leads to a sense of isolation. Self care and showing compassion to oneself can help doctors to feel more connected and less isolated. This feeling of connection will help in combating burnout.

Reason #4: We learn to care for others but not how to care for ourselves
Amidst all the diseases we learn about, all the medications, all the functions of every organ system, we learn nothing about how to care for ourselves, how to take breaks, make sure we have eaten and slept, how not to run on empty.

Reason #5: Overthinking
We don’t learn how to work with the one instrument we utilize all our waking hours, our minds. Because so much of medicine is cognitive problem-solving, we tend to believe that all of our thoughts are true. In fact, many of our thoughts are not true and lead to stress, worry, anxiety, and rumination, all of which wear the physician down and contribute to burnout.

The list of reasons for why burnout can occur can go on and on, but what about the steps to avoid burnout all together? 

Dr. Gazelle concludes by saying that, “Although 1 in 2 physicians experience burnout, there are a number of simple steps that can avert this fate. Physicians are experts at taking care of others but often put themselves last. To avoid burnout, the most important preventive step is daily doses of care for themselves. Since we physicians learn to be very self-critical, the second most important step is developing kindness and compassion toward ourselves. Third, focusing on what the physician is accomplishing as opposed to what they are not. These three steps can make the difference between burnout and a career of meaning and thriving.”