6 drivers of physician burnout

Six factors in particular are driving physicians' high burnout rates, and they existed well before the pandemic's onset, according to Paul DeChant, MD. 

Dr. DeChant, a healthcare consultant who co-wrote a book on physician burnout, discussed the issue's rise in a Sept. 13 episode of the American Medical Association's podcast, "AMA Update." 

Dr. DeChant pointed to six factors — originally identified by Christina Maslach, PhD, a social psychologist and researcher at the University of California Berkeley — that the pandemic has compounded, influencing the rise in burnout. 

 

The factors she outlined: 

1. Work overload

2. Lack of control

3. Insufficient rewards 

4. Breakdown of community 

5. Sense of unfairness 

6. Conflicting values 

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