Physician burnout linked to environment, stress, taking work home

Increasing rates of physician burnout are negative affecting providers as well as patients. Researchers in JAMA Internal Medicine explored exactly why physicians feel burned out—with leading causes including excessive workloads, stressful environments and a lacking work-life balance.

The study evaluated 2016 data from family physicians seeking American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) certification. The 1,725 participants each completed a core questionnaire and one of five additional question sets. The study also assessed burnout with correlating factors with the Maslach Burnout Inventory, an emotional exhaustion subscale.

Nearly 25 percent of physicians experienced burnout. Specific contributing factors included:

• 35.1 percent of burned out physicians reported less in control of their work.
• 57.1 percent felt their job environment led to symptoms of burnout.
• 21.1 percent felt a lack of time for documentation.
• 91.4 percent reported stress as a common factor.
• 62.1 percent reported spending time on electronic medical records (EMRs) at home was a significant contributor.

“With recent findings that physicians spend half as much time on direct clinical contact as on EMRs and desk work, our findings concur with others that the tasks required for EMR use are associated with burnout, not the EMR itself. This disproportionate time documenting may decrease the potentially protective benefits of patient contact,” said Monee Rassolian, MD, first author on the study. “Our findings suggest that burnout among family physicians is not uncommon. Future interventions to reduce burnout and improve patient care and physician satisfaction can be targeted toward addressing workplace factors.”