Abstract
[This is an excerpt.] BURNOUT IN MEDICINE IS not new—the syndrome was described in 1974 by psychologist Herbert J. Freudenberger as a condition that occurs when occupation-related stress combined with additional life pressures exceed an individual’s ability to cope and thrive, resulting in physical and mental distress.1,2 Trauma and stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with subsequent widespread labor shortages, have turned what was an endemic issue in medicine to a pandemic of burnout in health care. Longitudinal work evaluating the prevalence of burnout among physicians in the United States between 2011 and 2021 demonstrated that 62.8% of physicians surveyed in 2021 reported at least 1 burnout-related symptom compared with 38.2% (P < .001) in 2020 and 45.5% (P < .001) in 2011.3 Given that burnout has been linked to higher rates of depression, substance use disorders, suicide, medical errors, and reduction in work hours, these findings have profound consequences not only for physicians and other members of the health care team, but for the practice of medicine more broadly.4-8 [To read more, click View Resource.]
