We’ve talked about the problem of physician and resident burnout rates on the blog a few times in the past couple months, but now the Surgeon General is speaking out about the problem.
Vivek Murthy told MedPage Today that physician burnout turns people away from joining the healthcare field, which is problematic as our population keeps growing.
“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,” he said. “If we have people burning out, it really goes against our needs.”
Murthy said healthcare providers need to revamp the system to ensure the emotional well-being of doctors isn’t being overlooked.
“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. If healthcare providers aren’t well, it’s hard for them to heal the people for whom they are they caring.”
Emotional Well-Being and Substance Abuse
Murthy went on to say that the emotional well-being of healthcare practitioners was one of two points of emphasis his office would target this year. He said as an industry, we need to work on cultivating an environment that helps contribute to an emotionally healthy lifestyle.
“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,” he said. “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.”
The second focus will be on addiction and substance abuse. Whether it’s from overprescribing or from self-medicating, Murthy said we need to get better at understanding and treating pain.
“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.”
Not only is opioid abuse a problem, but opioids can be a gateway to other drugs, like heroin or meth. Murthy suggested that upwards of 80 percent of heroin users say their addiction began with prescription drugs.
“The opioid epidemic also plays a role in driving forward HIV, Hepatitis C and heroin use,” said Murthy. “I see prescribers as being essential part of solution to opioid crisis. Unlike many other substances like heroin and other illicits, the majority of supplies of misused prescription opiates are coming from legally written prescriptions. That means doctors, dentists, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants have the power to turn the tide on the opioid epidemic by virtue of their ability to prescribe, and their ability to inform and educate patients. Our goal is to build a national movement in medicine to take on this crisis as one we’re uniquely positioned to solve as prescribers.”
If Murthy can implement his plan, he believes we’ll take big strides towards a healthier nation.
“If we want to build a healthier and stronger country, we ultimately have to shift our focus from being entirely on treatment to having a balanced focus on prevention and treatment. Right now, even though most people understand an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure, that’s not reflected in how we invest in health as a country. [Instead] we predominately invest in building hospitals and in research on treatments. That is very important, but we need to do more on the prevention side.”