opinion: what can we do about doctor burnout?

i knew i wanted to be a doctor when i was nine years old, and that remained my focus during my early education. the fictional dr. kildare was my early role model. medicine blended the scientific method with humanism and purpose. i was fortunate enough to get into medical school and later discovered that i was more suited to medical rather than surgical specialties. i chose cardiology as a growing field, with exciting new diagnostic and therapeutic advances that would greatly improve the care of my patients. i went to stanford to learn about the emerging field of echocardiography and brought new technology back to canada that would become the most important clinical tool for cardiac decision making.

barry rubin, the program medical director of the peter munk cardiac centre(pmcc), used a pmcc innovation committee grant to study burnout among health care workers at the university health network, where we both work. the study, published recently in the canadian medical association journal open , surveyed 127 physicians using a well-being index that measures fatigue, depression, burnout, anxiety, stress and mental and physical quality of life. it was not surprising that about 65 per cent reported burnout and emotional challenges in coping with their workload, perceptions of unfairness and lack of being valued. a survey of nurses found even worse results with 78 per cent reporting burnout — and it was 73 per cent for allied health care workers. the alarming thing was that the surveys were conducted before the pandemic, which has only made things much worse.

a recent medscape article listed the top 10 factors that were voiced as contributing to u.s. physician burnout. the top three included too many bureaucratic tasks, too much time at work and lack of respect from administrators, colleagues or staff.

brené brown is a well known author, professor and lecturer. she spoke to oprah about her own challenges with burnout and how our defensive body armour may get in the way of understanding our feelings and accepting and dealing with our vulnerability. she said that beating burnout requires that “we must change not just our schedules, but our thinking. we must accept that what we produce and contribute is not our value-and get clear on what it is. the people who matter most to me don’t love me for what i do, or for what i’m doing for them; they love me for who i am.” she goes on to say that we have to dare to be honest, dare to set boundaries, and dare to find calming activities no matter how challenged we feel or resistant we may be to change.