Name: Physician Burnout and COVID-19 | Statistics & Solutions
Uploaded: 2021-12-28T17:51:08.000Z
Duration: 8 min 17 s
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It has been nearly two full years since the coronavirus pandemic began and our doctors

It’s to the point now where many physicians are even considering leaving medicine altogether.

But is COVID solely to blame for this burnout epidemic, or is there more to the story?

Today we’re going to talk about physician burnout.

We’ll cover what it is, why you should care, and what we can do about it.

Burnout can be defined as a state of emotional, mental, and physical stress caused by prolonged

It is characterized by feelings of exhaustion, low productivity, and cynicism towards work.

According to recent polls, nearly half of all physicians in the United States report

feeling burned out, and about one in five have considered leaving medicine altogether.

What is perhaps most alarming about these numbers is that they come at a time when our

healthcare system is already strained and we’re experiencing physician shortages across

The AAMC predicts that if we don’t take steps to lessen this gap, we will face a shortage

of up to 124,000 physicians by the year 2034.

Thus far, the focus has largely been on increasing the number of medical school and residency

positions; however, if we don’t figure out how to keep our physicians practicing, all

Burnout is a common precursor to depression and suicide and physicians already have some

of the highest suicide rates out of any profession.

According to one survey, as high as 13% of physicians have had suicidal thoughts with

1% of physicians reporting that they have actually attempted taking their own life.

These are incredibly worrisome statistics when you consider that anyone who has attempted

suicide is at a greater risk of completing the act sometime in the future.

It’s not just the well-being of our physicians at risk either.

If burnout is affecting half of our physicians, then it’s also indirectly affecting half

Physicians who are burned out or depressed are more likely to make medical errors which

can have adverse effects on their patients’ safety.

So now that we know what burnout is and why it’s a problem, is COVID-19 to blame for

According to Medscape’s 2021 Physician Burnout & Suicide Report, of the 42% of physicians

who reported feeling burned out, only 21% reported that it started after the pandemic.

This means that the vast majority of physicians were already experiencing burnout long before

This isn’t to say that coronavirus hasn’t made things much more difficult for many doctors,

but rather to point out that physician burnout has been a problem for years.

Physicians who have been working on the front lines seeing COVID patients have experienced

higher patient loads, longer hours, lack of personal protective equipment, and grief over

losing patients which have all added layers of extreme stress and exhaustion that have

Even physicians who haven’t been directly treating COVID patients have not been immune

Many have lost income due to restrictions on elective procedures and struggled with

There has even been a small percentage of physicians who were laid off due to decreased

But regardless of how each specialty was affected specifically, it is evident that some specialties

The top 5 specialties with the highest burnout rate in 2020 were urology, neurology, nephrology,

In 2021, these changed to critical care, rheumatology, infectious disease, urology, and pulmonary

medicine with family medicine, internal medicine, and emergency medicine following close behind.

From 2020 to 2021, we can see a shift towards front-line specialties like critical care,

infectious disease, and pulmonology feeling more burned out.

But despite these trends, most physicians still reported that their burnout began before

So, if COVID isn’t to blame, what’s really causing our physicians to feel so burned out?

According to Medscape, the top 5 reasons for physician burnout in 2021 were: too many bureaucratic

tasks, too many hours at work, lack of respect from administrators and colleagues, insufficient

compensation and reimbursement, and lack of autonomy.

Causes of burnout related to the pandemic such as stress related to social distancing,

treating COVID-19 patients, and government regulations were still within the top ten

What is interesting though, is that the top 5 reasons for burnout have remained largely

unchanged since 2016 - long before the pandemic began.

Physicians have been working long and difficult hours for years.

They’ve spent several hours each day filling out charts and paperwork to meet hospital

In some specialties like primary care, as much as two-thirds of their day is spent charting.

These reasons don’t exist in isolation either.

As one physician summed it up: “it’s all of these causes; its death by 1000 cuts.”

The biggest sources of burnout amongst physicians have been the same for years and COVID is

just another issue added to the laundry list.

To address the burnout pandemic, we need to look at solutions both on an individual and

At an individual level, there are a few actionable pieces of advice.

The most consistent finding throughout the scientific literature is that social support

If you believe you are burned out, depressed, or suicidal, the first thing you should do

The second is to seek support from your friends, family, and colleagues.

Sleep duration has also been inversely correlated with rates of burnout, meaning the more you

sleep, the less likely you are to be burned out.

I have an entire playlist on sleep going over the best ways to optimize your sleep and wake

Exercise is another popular way to cope with burnout with approximately 45% of physicians

reporting this as their preferred method.

Exercise has been correlated with improved well-being and decreased psychological distress,

That being said, burnout is ultimately more of a systemic issue than a personal one.

While we must take responsibility to mitigate it in our own lives, the fact that burnout

amongst physicians has been consistently rising for decades points to a systemic cause.

More and more healthcare systems are promoting wellness programs to address the issue of

Although well-intentioned, these programs push the narrative that burnout is the physician’s