We’ve talked about the rigors of the medical profession and how it can take a serious toll on doctors and nurses on the blog before, but now even the Surgeon General is speaking up about the dangers of physician burnout. According to Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA, the resulting burnout is pushing skilled workers out of the medical field.
“The suicide and burnout rate is very high, and this is concerning to me because we’re at a point in our country where we need more physicians, not fewer; we need more people entering our profession, not fewer,” said Murthy. “If we have people burning out, it really goes against our needs.”
He noted that the profession can offer feelings of great reward, like when a patient with a stroke regains the ability to walk, but far too often the negative emotions overcloud the feelings of reward, and over time that affects a doctor’s overall happiness.
“As I think about the emotional well-being for our country, I am particularly interested in how to cultivate emotional well-being for healthcare providers,” said Murthy. “If healthcare providers aren’t well, it’s hard for them to heal the people for whom they are they caring.”
Rejuvenated Focus
Speaking at the annual meeting of the Association of Health Care Journalists, Murthy told MedPage Today that the emotional well-being of physicians and caregivers would be one of two healthcare areas his office will focus heavily on this year. Before taking office he didn’t believe the emotional mindset of physicians would be an aspect he would focus on once appointed Surgeon General, but he said he noticed that the topic was a frequent conversation point when speaking with physicians and those in the industry.
“From conversations I had with community members, and it is based on the science developed over the years that tells us emotional well-being is an important driver of health,” explain Murthy. “People think that emotional well-being is something that happens to you — things line up in your life, you have the right job, and your health is good, and [you are in] a happy family and in a good relationship and you’re happy in your emotional life. But there’s a growing body of science that tells us there are things we can do to develop our emotional well-being proactively, and that in turn can have a positive impact on our health.”
Murthy stopped short of giving a detailed explanation of how exactly he plans to combat physician burnout, but he did mention that there would be a rejuvenated effort to focus on the rewarding aspects of a career in medicine.
“Sharing success stories is going to be an important part of expanding our prevention efforts,” he said.
The other aspect Murthy wants to focus on is addiction and drug abuse, as overdoses from prescription medications have increased steadily over the last decade. He said physicians needs to create a delicate balance where they are helping patients manage their pain without jumping straight to painkillers.
“Nurse practitioners, physicians, and dentists … they want to relieve suffering, they want to treat pain,” said Murthy. “What we have found is that many prescribers were never really trained in how to treat pain safely and effectively. “That’s something we want to change.”
My colleague Dr. Thomas Cohn takes a closer look at opioid abuse on his blog.