For our first post of Mental Health Awareness Month, I wanted to focus on a topic that is near and dear to my heart, physician burnout.

There is SO MUCH literature out there on burnout (I mean try looking at PubMed, that in itself is exhausting). And I’m sure you’ve been told by all the hospital administrators to join a yoga session or “try and get more sleep.” Also never forget the pieces of candy and $10 gift cards to the cafeteria that can’t even buy a whole meal.

So everyone’s talking about physician burnout - what’s the data on it? Medscape published their 2024 data. Here are a few things I find particularly interesting:

• 49% of physicians felt burnt out with 20% of physicians being depressed

• Emergency Medicine has the highest rate of burnout with 63% of doctors experiencing burnout, followed by OB-Gyn at 53%

• Too many bureaucratic tasks and too many hours at work being cited as the greatest sources of burnout

So yeah, these are pretty freaking sad. But how do we take care of ourselves (knowing that few other people are going to do it for us?). Here’s my thoughts:

• Find joy outside of medicine - whether this is committing to a weekly happy hour with friends or staying up to date with your favorite sport team, try to connect with the world outside of the hospital.

• Disconnect from work when you can. This works especially well for your hospitalist folks out there (but I firmly believe can be done in the outpatient setting too) - when you leave after work, consider turning off your work phone even just for a bit. Eat some dinner, and unwind without constantly checking the new emails and patient results.

• Something is better than nothing. A walk around the block IS exercise, prepackaged fruit IS still fruit. Don’t be so hard on yourself you can’t do it all.

• Advocate for yourself - if bureaucratic tasks are one of the biggest source of burnout, find ways to minimize these. After all, you have a medical degree and should be using it to its full potential! Here’s a shameless plug for the continued resident union efforts, there is power in numbers here

• Finally, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Therapy is one of the best things I did for myself throughout medical training. Find one who knows the challenges of working in the medical system.