Physician burnout and its corollary, physician wellness, is a major point of emphasis for AAPM&R. Academy leaders are aware of the currently available data that demonstrates our specialty to have one of the highest rates of burnout, dissatisfaction, and unhappiness. Burnout in medicine is commonly defined by the following three criteria:
- Emotional exhaustion
- Depersonalization (cynicism or callousness)
- Loss of personal accomplishment (lack of work fulfillment)
It has been argued that burnout in medicine is a public health crisis. The impacts of burnout include:
- Loss of individual and organizational productivity
- Risks to mental and physical health/quality of life/suicide
- Eroding quality of patient care and safety
- Diminished patient satisfaction
- Loss of group (team) morale
It is understood that clinician well-being is a complex problem. Burnout is fueled by factors at the individual, local, and national levels. There is a growing understanding that a physician’s local work environment may contribute the greatest to burnout including:
- Practice inefficiencies and insufficient resources
- Misalignment of professional values between faculty and leadership
- Increasing regulatory burden
The Academy is increasingly concerned about the cumulative risk to our members and in turn the specialty as a whole. Physiatry has been shown to be the least “happy” specialty. The combined detrimental effects raise serious alarms relating to:
- Individual member health and well-being
- Specialty cohesiveness including recruitment, retention, and reputation
- AAPM&R’s growth potential
There is a growing national narrative to address and reverse the trend in physician burnout. The so-called triple aim in medicine has now been expanded to the quadruple aim:
- Increase value of care
- Improve the patient experience
- Enhance population health
- Regain the joy of work
AAPM&R leaders recognize this escalating burden on our members. In 2019, Academy leadership commissioned a Board-level task force to further assess this dynamic landscape. This task force has instituted steps to inform members on this topic and advocate for our members in this arena.
Academy volunteers and staff leaders understand our members’ plight and recognize that the solution to burnout should not, and cannot, be borne individually by members. The historical model of treating burnout solely through individual directives (e.g., “stress reduction”) is inadequate and inappropriate. Given the complexity of burnout, there are multiple strategies that need to be implemented.
The Academy provides information, resources, and tools that focus on the barriers impacting the specialty at a national level and on the daily challenges of practicing medicine. The following represent the current direct and indirect initiatives and actions that the Academy has instituted to support physiatry wellness: