Essay Example on Burnout in Medical Professionals: Causes and Solutions

Introduction

Owing to the pressure that they have to endure in medical school, during residency, and later in their practice, medical professionals often cut the image of sleep-deprived, hungry, and harried people. While most people see it as an element of their job, it can lead to burnout, which endangers not only their lives but also those of the patients they handle. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines burnout as an occupational phenomenon caused by chronic workplace stress (WHO, 2019). Burnout is characterized by depersonalization, a lower sense of personal accomplishment, as well as emotional exhaustion. The affected individuals suffer a loss of interest, frustration, and fatigue. Ultimately, their performance is hurt. According to studies, burnout mainly occurs in professions involving social contacts, strenuous work, and high levels of responsibility (Ivanic et al., 2017). As such, healthcare is one of the most affected sectors due to the physical and emotional strain that medical professionals experience in the course of their work. It is estimated that one in every two healthcare professionals in the United States exhibits some symptoms of burnout (Stehman et al., 2019).

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Of all the departments, burnout syndrome is most prevalent in the emergency department (Ivanic et al., 2017). The phenomena can be attributed to the many stressing situations in the emergency department, the high responsibility borne by the practitioners, the close contact they have with death, as well as the frequent confrontations with the stress and frustration of the patients and their families. Physicians in the emergency department are three times more likely to suffer burnout as compared to their colleagues in other departments. Studies have shown that approximately 65% of physicians working in the emergency department suffer burnout as compared to 55% and 27.8% of internists and physicians in other departments, respectively (Ivanic et al., 2017). Burnout also affects other practitioners in the department, including nurses, technicians, as well as health information technicians (Schooley et al., 2016).

Causes of Burnout

Interestingly, burnout was historically seen as a form of personal weakness and hence made one look ill-fitted for the profession (Stehman et al., 2019). However, though various individual characteristics determine one's susceptibility to burnout, various societal and organizational factors have been shown to lead to burnout among healthcare professionals, particularly those working in the emergency department. The individual characteristics include one's personality, their attitude towards responsibility, and satisfaction with their job. Organizational and environmental factors include long working hours, bureaucratic tasks, electronic health records (EHR), financial concerns, lack of respect and autonomy, among others.

Various legislations such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have led to increased adoption of EHR. While the move is meant to improve patient outcomes by improving diagnosis, reducing medical errors, and increasing the safety of patients' information, it has been associated with higher levels of burnout among healthcare professionals (Stehman et al., 2019). As physicians and nurses spend more time on the screens billing and coding, patient contact is hurt. Resultantly, their humanism and inherent altruism are impacted, leading to burnout. EHRs also lead to distractions, such as during downtimes and failures, which also leads to burnout.

Studies have shown that financial concerns also lead to burnout among healthcare professionals (Stehman et al., 2019). Notably, medical school debts are directly tied to these concerns. For instance, it is estimated that physicians from the class of 2016 have a debt of more than $190,000 each (Stehman et al., 2019). The debts may lead them to work extra shifts, which also contributes to burnout. Besides, some healthcare professionals feel that some facilities place profits above the patients leading to burnout. The number of malpractice claims is also higher in the emergency department, hence serving as another cause of burnout.

The patient population, working hours, and stressors in emergency departments make them unique. These factors, coupled with a national shortage of emergency care providers, increase workload leading to burnout. The hours and shifts worked in the emergency department lead to sleep loss and fatigue, which also cause burnout. Healthcare professionals in the emergency department also suffer psychological trauma in the course of their duties. The trauma, which is also known as second victim syndrome, arises out of commission of medical errors or adverse patient outcomes. According to studies, up to 30% of physicians are emotionally affected by poor patient outcomes (Stehman et al., 2019). Since there exists a zero-mistake standard for healthcare professionals in the society, the commission of an error leads to anger and frustration that, in turn, leads to burnout.

Negative Effects of Burnout

Burnout adversely affects both the healthcare professionals and the patients they attend to in the emergency department. First, burnout leads to poor clinical care. Studies have proven that burnout leads to an increase in the occurrence of medical errors. As clinical care gets hurt, patient satisfaction is also affected, further leading to poorer outcomes (Stehman et al., 2019). Emergency medicine is a highly interdisciplinary field. Collaboration between physicians, nurses, and other professionals is essential to save the patients. However, when experiencing burnout, the professionals relate poorly with their colleagues, further hurting clinical care. The negative environment also places other workers at risk of burnout. With higher levels of burnout, the rates of turnover rise. In such settings, healthcare professionals may change specialties or leave the jobs altogether. Other than disrupting teams, high rates of turnover are costly to both the facilities and the health system in general. For instance, an estimated $160,000-$1,000,000 is required to replace a physician depending on their specialty and experience (Stehman et al., 2019).

Burnout also affects the mental health of healthcare professionals. It leads to depression, which may then result in self-medication and substance abuse. The syndrome has also been blamed for suicide, which is highly prevalent among healthcare professionals. It is estimated that 400 physicians commit suicide in the United States annually (Stehman et al., 2019). Unfortunately, since mental illnesses often lead to stigmatization within the medical circles, the affected medical practitioners rarely seek help.

Possible Policy Solutions

Since burnout among emergency healthcare providers is caused by different factors, multi-faceted approaches should be developed to address it. The solutions developed should tackle both the personal and organizational causes of the syndrome. At a personal level, practitioners should adopt a resilient and growth-oriented mindset. Since the emergency department is bound to test them psychologically and emotionally consistently, this measure helps them respond to the pressure in a healthier manner. The practitioners should also address issues in their personal lives that could lead to burnout. For instance, even amid the unfriendly working hours, they should preserve their sleep hygiene (Durand et al., 2019). Measures should also be taken to improve the relationships and collaborations among the members of staff. In such an environment, one will be understood and empathized with even when errors occur. Peer mentoring, as well as role modeling, should also be promoted.

At the organizational level, various measures can be taken to improve the working environment. Since the shortage of staff is a primary cause of burnout, the management must seek to improve the staffing of their facilities. They must also invest in training and development among the practitioners to enhance their competence hence reduce the fear of committing errors. Moreover, they should be well-remunerated to address their financial concerns. To reduce the stress associated with EHR, management of some tasks such as payment and documentation should be outsourced. This move would leave the practitioners with more time for the patients (Stehman et al., 2019). Most importantly, the practitioners should be listened to, respected, and given space to exercise their autonomy.

References

\Durand, A. C., Bompard, C., Sportiello, J., Michelet, P., & Gentile, S. (2019). Stress and burnout among professionals working in the emergency department in a French university hospital: prevalence and associated factors. Work, 63(1), 57-67. Retrieved from https://content.iospress.com/articles/work/wor192908

Ivanic, D., Adam, V. N., Srzic, I., Stepic, A., & Pintaric, H. (2017). Burnout syndrome in emergency. Hong Kong Journal of Emergency Medicine, 24(6), 290-297. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1024907917740094

Schooley, B., Hikmet, N., Tarcan, M., & Yorgancioglu, G. (2016). Comparing burnout across emergency physicians, nurses, technicians, and health information technicians working for the same organization. Medicine, 95(10). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4998861/

Stehman, C. R., Testo, Z., Gershaw, R. S., & Kellogg, A. R. (2019). Burnout, drop out, suicide: physician loss in emergency medicine, part I. Western journal of emergency medicine, 20(3), 485. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6526882/

WHO. (2019, May 28). Burn-out an "occupational phenomenon": International Classification of Diseases. Retrieved from WHO: https://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/burn-out/en/