- A recent BMJ study found that physicians’ burnout can lead to unsafe patient care and career disengagement.
- Excessive workloads and work intensity have increased physician fatigue and exhausted motivation and engagement.
- The well-being of physicians is vital for safe healthcare systems. Organizations must take urgent action to protect patients, physicians, and health systems.
The British Medical Journal (BMJ) published a study stating that physicians’ burnout undermines safe healthcare. Many healthcare professionals report burnout symptoms, which can lead to career disengagement and unsafe patient care.
According to the study, the challenges for patients, practitioners, researchers, and healthcare leaders fall into these three broad themes:
- Burnout undermines professional engagement and results in loss of commitment, high turnover, and absenteeism.
- The work environment fundamentally causes burnout. Excessive workloads and work intensity have increased physician fatigue and exhausted motivation and engagement.
- Healthcare provider burnout risks patient safety and must be seen as any other patient safety issue. Implementing organization-level interventions, changing practices and culture, promoting staff engagement, and aligning policy efforts can help reduce burnout.
Read more about how you can reduce physician burnout on our blog Reversing the burnout crisis: Helping physicians be physicians again.
Another related BMJ article did 170 observational studies of 239,246 physicians to analyze the association of physician burnout with career engagement and the quality of care provided to patients.
Some of the key findings of this article include:
Burnout nearly tripled to quadrupled the odds of job dissatisfaction and regrets about career choices. - Physicians with burnout were three times more likely to consider quitting than staying in their jobs.
- Burnout significantly lowers productivity and doubles the odds of patient incidents, low levels of professionalism, and decreases in patient satisfaction.
The well-being of physicians is vital for safe healthcare systems. The BKM study states that urgent action is required to protect patients, physicians, and health systems. This should include evidence-based and system-oriented interventions to design working environments that promote staff engagement and prevent burnout.
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