Statistically speaking, physicians suffer more job burnout than any other profession in America. Don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of us love our jobs and what we do, but being a physician takes a significant physical and emotional on your mind and body. Looking specifically at orthopedic surgeons, we fall near the middle of specialty burnout percentage, with 45 percent of orthopedists saying they suffer from burnout. To see how all the specialties rank, check out this chart on Medscape.
Although orthopedists fall in the middle compared to other specialties, it’s shocking to hear that nearly 1 in 2 orthopedic specialists suffer from burnout. Medscape defines burnout as “a loss of enthusiasm for work, feelings of cynicism, and a low sense of personal accomplishment.” Not exactly the attitude you want from someone who you trust with your health, but unfortunately, that’s the state of medicine today.
Why The Burnout?
Every job comes with responsibilities, and with your daily duties comes the potential for stress. Oftentimes this stress derives from the potential aftermath of a mistake or missed deadline, and while a forgetful greenskeeper’s mistake may lead to faster putting greens, a tenth of an inch slip of the scalpel for a surgeon can cost them their job or their patient’s life. That said, few physicians mentioned malpractice concerns as their biggest reason for stress and burnout. Instead, the top five reasons for orthopedic surgeon burnout were:
- Too many bureaucratic tasks
- Impact of the Affordable Care Act
- Increasing computerization of practice
- Too many hours at work
- Income not high enough
I’ve written about it before, but the top two reasons are of little surprise to me. There’s too much bureaucratic red tape, too many forms to fill out and authorizations to clear before we can even start trying to help the increasing patient load brought on by the Affordable Care Act. It’s certainly been stressful at times, but as I’ve said before, I make it a priority to balance my work life with my personal life as much as possible, and that certainly helps keep everything in perspective.
It’s bad for orthopedists, but it’s worse in other fields. It’s disappointing to hear how unhappy my colleagues are. Sure, we complain to each other about the rigors of our profession just like everyone else. The burdens of electronic records, the diminishing reimbursements, and the challenge in management of patients with Medicare all contribute to physician burnout. But these are starting to pale in comparison to the debt level of the country and the challenges to our future and our way of life. These growing concerns are what I believe is fueling burnout. I would like to see how this burnout is affecting other areas of our economy.