Opinion Piece/Short Communication – Clinician Well-Being Knowledge Hub

We Don’t Need Self-Care; We Need Boundaries

NAM — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 20:25:01 +0000

This op-ed from a female physician talks about the “faux self care” advice that women in medicine receive when they are burnt out. Women in medicine are often told to just get lunch, get a manicure, or do yoga but it ends up as an item on their to-do list that guilt trips them and doesn’t seem to solve any problems. This is because it is not actually self care. Self care is defined as the internal hard work of making decisions for yourself. However, for women in medicine, making these decisions is difficult, especially in a hyper-productivity oriented medical culture. She discusses the broken system that places the burden of improving resilience onto the individual and exonerates the system. She encourages setting boundaries as a form of self-care to counteract a system that will make doctors feel ashamed for reaching their limit.

Clinical Burnout and the Quality of Care

NAM — Wed, 18 Sep 2019 13:06:57 +0000

This commentary by Mark Linzer discusses the next steps forward within the research field of physician burnout. Suggestions for potential improvement in literature is using subjective, objective measurement; however, existing research does establish clear links between burnout and patient care. Another area needing further development are studies regarding solutions to improving work conditions. Few feasible studies currently exist considering the alarming statistics regarding burnout and more rigorous quality improvement studies are needed. Questions around topics such as workflow design, EHR, and policy change can help guide future research projects.

Returning to the Sacred Patient-Physician Relationship

NAM — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 16:37:04 +0000

In this blog post by epileptologist Virginia Thornley, she describes the importance of returning to the sacred traditional relationship between a patient and physician. Where there was once a time where doctors would visit patients in their own homes with simply a bag on hand, is now vastly different from today where there are too many middlemen and regulations getting in the way of a genuine connection. She emphasizes cutting out the middleman and going back to the basics of communication when providing care to a patient. Anything that widens the chasm becomes a barrier to improving the medical environment.

Physician Burnout: Resilience Training is Only Part of the Solution

NAM — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 16:18:29 +0000

This reflection piece discusses interventions to address both avoidable and unavoidable occupational suffering among physicians. It distinguishes between the two as one that’s inherent in the physician’s role (unavoidable) and one that is the result of system failures that are preventable (avoidable). While resiliency training may help in addressing inevitable suffering, it is not the right solution to organizational structures that lead to avoidable suffering. Building an evidence base for improving work systems is vitally essential in mitigating occupational adversity in health care.

2 Remedies for Reducing Burnout Among Healthcare Workers

NAM — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 20:22:13 +0000

Burnout can undermine not only employee well-being, but also patient outcomes, safety and quality of care. Gallup, in partnership with Sharecare, has developed a well-being model that considers the ways employees relate to their jobs and, in turn, perform at work. Well-being is defined as 5 interrelated elements: purpose, social, financial, community and physical. Analytics show that when employees are thriving in at least four of these elements, they are four times less likely to feel burnout at work. Healthcare leaders must effectively infuse well-being in their organizational beliefs, behaviors and systems, and meet their employee’s needs through setting clear expectations and collecting engagement data.

The Unique Environmental Influences of Acute Care Settings on Patient and Physician Well-Being: A Call to Action

NAM — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 18:47:49 +0000

This letter to the editor of The Journal of Emergency Medicine discusses the prevalence of clinician burnout due to crowding and workflow congestion. Future interventions for acute care physicians could include work cycles/schedules that optimize staffing models to adjust for real-time changes in crowding, which may improve clinician well-being, patient outcomes, and health care costs. Other hospital interventions designed to enhance the work-flow in a crowded environment – such as overlapping clinical shifts or the use of scribes – should focus not just on implications for clinical productivity, but also on implications for clinician well-being.

Resilience Training in Medical School: the Solution to Doctor Burnout?

NAM — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 13:44:53 +0000

This letter to the editor of Medical Teacher argues that resilience training strategies must be implemented during medical school to properly equip students for their professional life. Recommendations include mindfulness training, screening for resilience at admission and building resilience as part of a preventative, rather than reactionary approach.

Role of the Doctor: To Care for Patients’ Well-Being

NAM — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 19:04:05 +0000

Published in BMJ, the following commentary discusses the moral and professional role of physicians. Is the duty to please or to provide informed, professional advice in good faith? The privilege of aforementioned professionalism is one imparted to a physician by society and the preparation is in the compassion, dedication, and education. The irreducible core value, Colman points out, is that the physician cares for the well-being of his or her patients. Management and professional practices emphasize process and productivity pose a risk to that responsibility, potentially leading to disillusionment and loss of morale.

Resilience Training: No More is Needed or Desired

NAM — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 18:29:24 +0000

Published in Postgraduate Medical Journal (BMJ), the following is a critical response to Halliday et al.’s ‘Grit and burnout in UK doctors: a cross-sectional study across specialties and stages of training.’ David Smith argues that the inter-generational differences identified are a means of scapegoating the new generation of junior doctors for their lack of resilience and ‘grit.’ He emphasizes that resiliency training is not well-received and demands NHS Management implement more concrete action to address the critical issue of resident and physician well-being.

Physician Work Environment and Well-being: A Call for Papers

NAM — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 14:51:01 +0000

This Opinion article, published in JAMA Network, overviews the changes in Work Environment and shift in culture of healthcare highlighting the newfound challenges faced by physicians. Goiten et al. conclude by ways we as a society can steer the course of physician well-being by expanding the Triple Aim and placing emphasis on clinicians’ professional identity and quality of care.