Physician Burnout

[PrincessFiona]

Thought this was interesting:

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2015/12/...-symptoms.html


Burnout is something we are seeing a lot of right now due to changes in the political structure of the work environment and increased demands to see patients/decreases in salary. There has been a trend of early retirements.

It's definitely on our radar.

Kris

[Flynn]

Thanks for posting. This is on our radar as well.

Our top four concerns are (not in any order):

DH's health
relationship in DH's group between docs and admins (communication is bad and there is an air of distrust)
lack of time to enjoy life outside the hospital
renegotiating contract next year (admins have proven they don't even prepare for the meeting ie they don't have accurate numbers of salaries across the country) and fear of arbitrary salary cut

There are so many other ways to make money today and be fulfilled/challenged/make a difference/have a life.
Medicine is NOT one of these.

[gcuthbe1]

Thanks for sharing. This is something we've discussed as well.
Practice link just did their annual quality of life issue. Idk how much I trust it, but it was an interesting read.
http://magazine.practicelink.com/i/6...winter-2016/0?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[gcuthbe1]

Our top four concerns are (not in any order):

DH's health

Thought of you reading this related article

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2016/01/...b-killing.html

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[PrincessFiona]

Thanks for sharing. This is something we've discussed as well.
Practice link just did their annual quality of life issue. Idk how much I trust it, but it was an interesting read.
http://magazine.practicelink.com/i/6...winter-2016/0?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Interesting read. A psychiatrist here told me that psychiatrist's have among the highest suicide rates and pay is lower than for many specialties with patients being difficult to handle at times. (run on sentence). She'd probably disagree with psychiatry being one of the happiest specialties.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ballibeg]

Psychiatrists in UK retire earlier than all other doctors. This comes from when the NHS was formed after the second World War and the early retirement was to reflect the difficulty of the job treating veterans.

[Vanquisher]

Physician Burnout

I'd disagree with ortho being a happy specialty too. My guess is a selection bias of respondents.

Many physicians don't want to admit their unhappiness or don't have time to fill out stupid surveys.

[gcuthbe1]

I'd disagree with ortho being a happy specialty too. My guess is a selection bias of respondents.

Many physicians don't want to admit their unhappiness or don't have time to fill out stupid surveys.

Haha exactly why I don't totally trust it. DH thinks the whole magazine is a recruiting ploy

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Vanquisher]

Haha exactly why I don't totally trust it. DH thinks the whole magazine is a recruiting ploy

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

It is. Definitely.

[gcuthbe1]

It is. Definitely.

I'm reading the section about a vascular surgeon in Colorado Springs and just pretending he's truly happy, and so are his spouse and kids and pets.... Daydreaming of our potential future...

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[MDPhDWife]

I read that Practice link magazine article too and it has Ophtho's listed as happiest. Dare I say that at this early point of post training, I agree? Hours are very reasonable and pay isn't too shabby. Someone here told me many many years ago to advise DH to stay on the ROAD when he had his heart set on peds onc. Boy that would have been a much different life than the one we live.

[rainbabies]

I didn't read it but dh is always looking for a way out. With his current health issues it may come much sooner than either of us expected.


~shacked up with an ob/gyn~
~three munchkins 10,11,12~

[rufflesanddots]

I read that Practice link magazine article too and it has Ophtho's listed as happiest. Dare I say that at this early point of post training, I agree? Hours are very reasonable and pay isn't too shabby. Someone here told me many many years ago to advise DH to stay on the ROAD when he had his heart set on peds onc. Boy that would have been a much different life than the one we live.

Despite my gentle ROAD urging, my DH still thinks ortho is what he'll want. Granted he is basing that off the first 2 years of school, a research project, and shadowing that and some various specialties. I know ortho is wildly despised around here, but I do have to say it's nice to at least finally see him interested and motivated by something. I think medicine is the right area for him. He wants to add an MBA while in school so he does have more career flexibility, too. We'll see what happens with step and rotations, I suppose.

[SuzySunshine]

I have decided its not the type of medicine that causes the burnout its the administrative crap that comes with medicine of any type. My DH LOVES neurosurgery - you should see him light up when he's headed out the door to do some crazy case most of which I don't even pretend to understand. He can stand on his feet for 14+ hours doing one case and loves it, he's got a great office staff (finally!) and has always loved his OR staff at this job. With all of that said he HATES clinic but knows its a necessary evil for the OR part, he's also highly specialized so he doesn't get bogged down with scheduling as much as possible to make enough money.

Now he does get burnt out at times and has to recoop - when we took this job he told me my job was to make sure he takes his vacations and that is what I do. Now he may work on part of those vacations, like he used all of our drive time to/from Mississippi to catch up on notes but he went back to work this morning completely caught up, didn't miss any of the MS fun or wedding because of work. In February we take our beach vacation where he can't work and in March we'll take our ski vacation - I expect him to do some work/catch-up on that trip but its all about expectations.

I don't say all of this to discount other peoples' burnout because I know it happens. I have a good friend here who is a hospitalist and I don't know how they do it - he works way more then DH and gets paid less. I guess my point is that the ROAD specialties can be great because they seem to have that balance but I think you can find that balance in other specialties/jobs too.

I do agree that this article looks like a recruiting tool.

[medpedspouse]

ITA
I do not think that it is the specialty but the support or lack thereof of the administration and all the admin crap physicians have to do. This is not new. Medicine has been changing little by little each year. The organization that DH and I work for knows this. It is a well known fact that physician burnout is at a high and those not there yet are somewhere on the unhappy spectrum. So, now we have retreats being piloted. I do not know how successful this will be because at the end of the day, medicine is no longer what our spouses thought it was going to be when they started down this path. I remember orienting a physician that had never been on the medical mission. He said he was going for selfish reasons...to actually be able to practice medicine and help people. That was 9 years ago