Clinician burnout is a significant problem in modern healthcare. Between 35 percent and 54 percent of U.S. nurses and physicians have substantial symptoms of burnout, and the range for medical students and residents is even higher. Burnout is characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization (i.e., cynicism), and a low sense of personal accomplishment from work.

If you're not a clinician, should you be concerned about burnout? Yes! Ultimately, burnout influences both patient safety and the quality of care.

Some authors, such as Tait Shanafelt, have been publishing on burnout for years, but only in the last few years has the issue moved into the spotlight.

The National Academy of Medicine just released their report: Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems Approach to Professional Well-Being. I read the report highlights and key points.

The key points include:

• Clinician burnout - a workplace syndrome resulting from chronic job stress - is a major problem across the nation.
• Mitigating clinician burnout and supporting professional well-being is essential to providing high-quality patient care.
• Addressing the factors contributing to burnout and the barriers to well-being is critical to reaching the goal of professional well-being among clinicians.
• Interventions should target known factors that contribute to clinician burnout and include clinician and patient feedback.
• Addressing burnout requires improving the design and organization of the environments in which clinicians train and work.
• Leaders in health care organizations and health professions educational institutions, federal agencies, health information technology stakeholders, state licensing boards, and health system credentialing bodies must all work together to reduce clinician burnout and foster professional well-being.
• Strong studies, dedicated funding, and collaboration are needed

I applaud the NAM for their efforts and look forward to reading the entire report.

If you'd like to learn more about how to buffer yourself from burnout, please see my lecture: Mindfulness, The Basics.