Year in review: Stories that seek to change workplace culture in medicine

The COVID-19 pandemic has put an enormous strain on health care workers and exacerbated existing burnout and staffing shortages. Many workers have reported considering leaving the profession altogether.

“Physicians are deeply mission driven,” Eileen Barrett, MD, MPH, an associate professor of internal medicine and director of continuing medical education at the University of New Mexico, told Healio Primary Care. “We continued to take care of patients when there was inadequate PPE, before we had vaccines, when there was no treatment for COVID, and when we didn’t know if we were risking our family’s lives by doing clinical care. We have been told for years that ‘without a margin there isn’t a mission,’ and it’s time for us to reply with ‘without a mission there won’t be physicians.’”

Now more than ever, Barrett said physicians need support in their workplace — “from a recruitment, retention or basic human decency perspective.”

Over the past year, Healio has covered reports highlighting issues in the workplace and ways that health care employers can better support and retain workers. Read these stories below:

Five strategies for health care workers to achieve work-home life balance

The struggle to balance a career in medicine and a family life is very real, but there are effective strategies to achieve an equilibrium, a speaker at the Ending Physician Burnout Global Summit said. Read more.

Q&A: ACP leaders call on health care employers to better support clinicians

Several ACP leaders have outlined 10 actions that health care employers can take to ensure the safety and wellbeing of clinicians during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more.

Reducing burnout depends on changing the culture of medicine

Physicians have the opportunity to shift the systems of health care, as well as the culture of medicine, to help fight back against burnout, according to a presentation at the Ending Physician Burnout Global Summit. Read more.

Early intervention key to combating physician burnout, suicide

Ending physician suicide from burnout relies on early identification of and intervention for unwellness before it leads to impairment, according to a speaker at the Ending Physician Burnout Global Summit. Read more.

Q&A: Academia lacks structures to support health care professionals in times of grief

Additional support and flexibility in academia following a loss can foster recovery and may help reduce burnout among health care professionals, according to an opinion piece published in JAMA. Read more.

Speaker: Your patients won’t get better until you achieve wellness for yourself

Physicians need to make wellness a priority for themselves and their teams if they want to enjoy their career and improve patient care, according to Maeve O’Connor, MD. Read more.

Organizations must lead in boosting well-being, reducing burnout among physicians

Health care organizations must take steps to reduce burnout and enhance the well-being of physicians, according to a keynote speaker at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology virtual meeting. Read more.

Q&A: Guidance offers solutions to ‘major drivers of fatigue’ in health care workers

Experts said they developed new guidance that stakeholders can use to design a shift work duration that “effectively balances the need to meet operational demands with the need to manage fatigue-related risks.” Read more.

Survey: Women physicians have harder time achieving work-life integration

Women physicians “consistently” reported worse work-life integration than men across a range of demographic and professional factors, survey data in JAMA Network Open showed. Read more.

Intervention, discussions essential to reducing burnout, increased fulfillment in work

Physicians who engaged in discussions about the “virtues and challenges” of their specialties and in organizations with wellness-centered leadership experienced decreased burnout and increased fulfilment in work, according to a speaker. Read more.