Generally defined as physical and mental exhaustion brought about by overwhelming work-related stress, burnout remains an issue in various professions, especially in the healthcare sector. Physicians and nurses in particular frequently experience this collapse because of the nature of their positions, and practitioners who have reported being burned out have been increasing steadily in the last few years.
In fact, surveys show that over 60 percent of doctors experience burnout, with most citing long hours and bureaucratic tasks as the primary contributing factors. This can be detrimental not only to the healthcare providers themselves but also to medical outcomes and patient care. Fortunately, this problem can be addressed at an organizational and individual level. In this article, we’ll cover some of the most effective strategies to combat physician burnout.
Leadership development
The leadership quality of any organization will always impact the job satisfaction, stress levels, and burnout of the employees, and healthcare is no different. In addition, research shows that high leadership scores strongly correlate with a greater level of satisfaction and lower chances of getting burned out. Therefore, organizations mustn’t take leadership development for granted and recruit those who can engage, listen to, and develop their teams as leaders.
Flexible working schedule
Working as a locum tenens practitioner through a medical recruitment company is becoming commonplace in the healthcare sector, and for a good reason. Beyond the freedom to choose assignments and opportunities to generate more income, working in locums also offers greater flexibility when it comes to working schedules.
For this reason, it’s an ideal path for physicians, regardless of where they are in their respective careers. And more importantly, it’s a wake-up call for hospitals and other healthcare facilities to consider more flexible scheduling policies.
Reduce technological burden
Many physicians point out burdensome technology and clerical tasks as the reasons for their burnout, so it makes sense for organizations to collect feedback regarding EMRs and other tools. The increasing focus on documentation has led to a decrease in patient interactions, and having to learn new complex systems can take away from patient care even more.
People become doctors to see patients and address their health-related needs, not spend hours learning technology for the purpose of documentation. Thus, it’s vital to reduce this technological burden on physicians, whether through more streamlined systems or comprehensive training.
Minimize non-clinical activities
Non-clinical work is arguably the most common reason why many physicians get burned out. Of course, administrative work like billing doesn’t just take away from the practice of medicine. But the additional workload can also result in longer hours for the healthcare practitioner. To get around this, some organizations have begun to let non-clinical staff shoulder the responsibility so physicians can focus on practicing medicine.
Conclusion
Physician burnout is a serious issue affecting healthcare providers and their performance. Because of this, organizations and practitioners need to find ways to avoid the occurrence of this psychological syndrome at all costs. And these strategies will go a long way in helping you combat burnout.
Guest blogger
Our guest post blogspot features a wide and diverse range of guests who have written one-off blogs about different aspects of health and fitness. If you are interested in featuring on our guest blogspot, please contact us.
Join with Google
Join with Facebook
Physician burnout has been an issue in the medical field for some time now, resulting in quite a number of malpractice cases and in some cases fatal. It was also once pointed out that these long calls have also contributed to this. No other profession is expected to work a 24-hour call yet Physicians sometimes do. I am glad to see that we are actually starting to tackle this issue as it is a serious matter and needs to be addressed to save the lives of patients and preserve the dignity of the medical field.
on November 3, 2022 at 9:20 am Walk-In Clinic