Advocating Future Physicians Is One Key to Solving Physician Burnout

Physician burnout isn’t just a reaction to a stressful work environment. This is both a leading and a lagging indicator of the quality and stability of the US healthcare system.

new textbooksCaring for Caregivers: A Comprehensive Approach to Developing Wellbeing Programs for Medical Learners— See Major Causes of Burnout Syndrome It explores how suboptimal health affects physician performance and patient care. It also provides a set of tools and strategies to reduce healthcare burnout and promote resilience.

One such tool, increasing the interest of medical students and residents in advocating for solutions to burnout, is illustrated in Chapter 17, Advocating Physician Welfare at the Societal Level. It has been.

Reducing physician burnout is AMA Recovery Plan for American Physicians.

Too many American doctors are experiencing burnout. That’s why AMA prioritizes health and develops resources highlighting workflow changes This allows doctors to focus on what matters: patient care.

“Successful training programs enable physicians to meet the challenges of medical practice. Traditionally, this has meant equipping physicians with medical knowledge, clinical reasoning skills, and procedural skills. writes the authors of the chapter, Christine A. Shinsky, M.D., vice president of job satisfaction at the AMA and Alexandra M. Listow, M.D., an AMA member. Chief Primary Care Physician at Patina, a home and virtual care primary care clinic for seniors in Pennsylvania.

“To combat the physician burnout crisis, physicians must arm themselves with a new set of tools: knowledge of best practices to prevent burnout. Think critically about practice environments and workflows. A framework for, the skills of leading a multidisciplinary team, self-compassion, the ability to create a culture of vulnerability within a work unit, and “health-centered leadership,” the authors added. “Physician health advocates at a societal level have been honing these tools over the years.”

Advocating for physician health can be achieved using the following means, write the authors:

• research.
• Stakeholder activation at individual, organizational and national levels.
• Creation and distribution of resources.
• Harness the demands of the workplace.

“Research is the foundation of effective advocacy,” they write. “With a strong evidence base, advocates can better define problems, argue for change more convincingly, and propose solutions with more confidence.”

Burnout is primarily caused by systemic factors rather than individual factors such as lack of resilience.

“Therefore, advocacy to reduce physician burnout must also be made at the system level, the clinical practice level. [at] We are working with technology, regulatory, policy, payment and healthcare delivery stakeholders at the healthcare delivery organization and national level,” they wrote. In addition, all stakeholders should exercise their judgment in addressing the question: “How will this decision/duty/requirement/policy impact physicians and other health care professionals closest to the patient?” have the opportunity to hold

And, if all else fails, doctors can take care of their health by “voting with their feet”, in other words, by choosing to work only in clinics that value professional satisfaction. can claim.

The authors conclude that “changing the medical culture from one of lone perfectionism and an ‘iron doctor’ mentality to one that emphasizes self-compassion, vulnerability, and shared responsibility for outcomes can help reduce burnout.” It will be important,” he concluded.

This chapter also provides guidance for implementing advocacy measures. First on that list is, “Focus on fixing the workplace, not the workers. It’s the system that’s broken, not the individuals inside.”

Separately, AMA has produced a first-of-its-kind book for administrators and academic medical leaders looking to improve educator well-being by making changes at the system level. the book, Educator well-being in academic medicineoffers system-level change suggestions that elevate the mission of education and guide educators to feel valued, and combine evidence-based research, personal stories, and well-being-focused lived experiences. explore.