I recently came across this interesting article about physician burnout. It was a nice review of the relevant literature. The authors addressed the obvious issues such as job dissatisfaction, turnover and related financial and career-related issues. They also did a really good job describing the correlation between physician burnout and medical errors (and malpractice claims), something that most burned out doctors often don’t think much about. Somewhat related to this, it seems that patient satisfaction is negatively affected by burnout. Demographically, women are more prone than men to burn out, as are younger physicians.
Burnout is often not addressed until bigger, more damaging problems arise, such as acting out with disruptive behavior. As with most compounding problems, it’s much easier to prevent or successfully treat disruptive behavior when underlying burnout issues are dealt with. I’m available to meet with such physicians and other healthcare professionals. Contact me to schedule an initial consultation.
Thanks for this interesting post. In my experience coaching disruptive physicians is not or should not be any different from coaching physician burn out. Many of the burnout programs are Continuing Medical Education that is extremely limited.
Congradulations on your work.