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Physician wellness essential to avoid burnout, ensure best patient care
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PHILADELPHIA — Physicians should prioritize their health and well-being to avoid burnout and provide the best care for their patients, according to a presentation at the American Headache Society Annual Scientific Meeting.
Deena E. Kuruvilla, MD, assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine, addressed the causes and consequences of physician burnout, ways to reduce burnout, and the importance of physician wellness.
“Last year for the first time in a decade, there was a drop of 14,000 in med school applications, and in a survey of physicians, almost 50% of physicians reported one symptom of burnout,” Kuruvilla said during the presentation.
“Those same physicians reported that they would likely leave medicine in the next couple of years. So in the next 20 to 30 years, there is a possibility that there will not be enough physicians for the demand that we have for adult care, especially in the primary care realm,” she continued.
Kuruvilla discussed the primary symptoms of physician burnout, including emotional exhaustion or loss of interest, depersonalization towards patients and career dissatisfaction.
Citing survey results published in JAMA Internal Medicine, Kuruvilla noted that neurologists were ranked third in prevalence of burnout, with more than 50% of neurologists reporting at least one burnout symptom. The same study ranked those in general internal medicine second and family medicine physicians fourth in burnout prevalence.
Kuruvilla noted that professional consequences of physician burnout include declining quality of care, loss of empathy towards patients, increased risk for medical errors and early retirement. Personal consequences of physician burnout include depression, anxiety, damaged personal relationships, problematic alcohol and drug use, and thoughts of suicide.
To combat physician burnout, Kuruvilla stated that personal counseling, small group discussions and practice redesigns, such as partnering with physician’s assistants and nurse practitioners, were previously recommended to reduce burnout.
She also noted that mindfulness-based stress therapy may be successful in reducing burnout symptoms based on positive results from a study of 70 PCPs. Physicians who underwent mindfulness-based stress therapy had improved empathy with their patients, were better able to connect with their patients and understand their emotional states, and saw improvements in their own depression, anxiety and fatigue.
“My main takeaway for this talk is that we are so needed to keep our health care system going. Our patients need us, and they’re counting on us to take care of ourselves so that we can take amazing care of them,” Kuruvilla said. – by Erin Michael
Reference:
Kuruvilla DE, et al. Physician wellness: the desirable inverse of burnout. Presented at: American Headache Society Annual Scientific Meeting; July 11-14, 2019; Philadelphia.
Disclosures: Kuruvilla reports no relevant financial disclosures.