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About Half of Canadian Physicians Report High Burnout Levels
Nearly half of physicians in Canada report high levels of burnout, according to preliminary data from the 2025 National Physician Health Survey (NPHS). The new data show that 46% of physicians report high levels of burnout, down from 2021 (53%) but significantly above the level of 2017 (30%), when the first survey was conducted. The full NPHS 2025 Foundational Report will be released later this year.
Other significant findings include the following:
- 74% of physicians reported experiencing bullying, harassment, microaggressions, or discrimination, a slight but meaningful reduction form 78% in 2021.
- 64% of physicians reported spending significant time on electronic medical records outside regular hours.
- 46% of physicians said that their mental health is worse than it was before the start of the pandemic, down 14% from 2021.
- 60% reported being satisfied or very satisfied with work-life balance, an improvement from 49% in 2021, though slightly below 2017 (62%).
- 37% of physicians plan to reduce their clinical hours in the next 2 years.
Margot Burnell, MD, president of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), told Medscape Medical News that she was "disappointed" with the results.
"I hoped that the burnout numbers would decrease more than they have," she said. "Physicians are still under extreme stress in trying to provide the care for patients that they wish to give."
Reductions in Hours
The most distressing finding is that > one-third of physicians (37%) plan to reduce their hours within 24 hours -- at a time of growing physician shortages -- said Burnell.
"The one positive (finding) that stands out is that physicians are taking care of their own health and wellness and report that it's helping," she said. About 65% of physicians reported having accessed at least 1 wellness support in the past 5 years, up 11% since 2021.
The NPHS includes responses from about 3300 practicing physicians, medical residents, and fellows who were surveyed from March 14 to April 15.
Among the CMA's top priorities is to reduce the administrative burden because that tops the list of what physicians say would help them with burnout, said Burnell.
"The other area is to provide and encourage team-based care," she continued. "That provides some relief for physicians." It also is important to promote the approaches that seem to be helping, such as wellness support and artificial intelligence (AI), she said. In this survey, 59% of respondents who used AI said that it decreased their time spent on administrative tasks.
Burnout by Specialty
Future analyses will examine burnout by specialty, Burnell said. Burnout is particularly high among emergency physicians, regardless of province, according to previous work by Kerstin de Wit, MD, emergency physician and research director for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and colleagues.
The NPHS findings are not surprising, she told Medscape Medical News. "We resurveyed all our emergency physicians in January and found similar results, in that the levels of burnout were marginally less than they were in 2022 but still significantly higher than they were in 2020. Still, a majority of (emergency department) physicians qualify as having high burnout levels."
The Pandemic's Role
A telling finding of her team's research is that emergency physician burnout levels are now higher than they were in December 2020, the first year of the COVID pandemic, said De Wit. "I don't think you can say burnout is because of COVID. It's because of the problems in the medical system."
Among those problems in hospitals are a shortage of beds, physicians, and nurses and inadequate numbers of physicians in outpatient clinics "so patients are waiting for years" for conditions to be treated, she added.
"We don't have the resources that we need to maintain the standards that we had even 10, 15 years ago. The whole system is collapsing. Government underfunding is huge. Routinely, our emergency department is 100% full of ward patients, so we don't have a room with a door or a curtain to see patients in. All the emergency patients are seen in corridors or the waiting room in full view of everyone else. We have people with serious medical conditions who are dying in waiting rooms because we can't get them in."
The issues are complex, but the overarching problem is chronic underfunding that results in physicians "feeling overworked and powerless to help patients," said De Wit.
Burnell and de Wit reported having no relevant financial relationships.
Marcia Frellick is an independent health care journalist and a regular contributor to Medscape Medical News.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
Nearly half of physicians in Canada report high levels of burnout, according to preliminary data from the 2025 National Physician Health Survey (NPHS). The new data show that 46% of physicians report high levels of burnout, down from 2021 (53%) but significantly above the level of 2017 (30%), when the first survey was conducted. The full NPHS 2025 Foundational Report will be released later this year.
Other significant findings include the following:
- 74% of physicians reported experiencing bullying, harassment, microaggressions, or discrimination, a slight but meaningful reduction form 78% in 2021.
- 64% of physicians reported spending significant time on electronic medical records outside regular hours.
- 46% of physicians said that their mental health is worse than it was before the start of the pandemic, down 14% from 2021.
- 60% reported being satisfied or very satisfied with work-life balance, an improvement from 49% in 2021, though slightly below 2017 (62%).
- 37% of physicians plan to reduce their clinical hours in the next 2 years.
Margot Burnell, MD, president of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), told Medscape Medical News that she was "disappointed" with the results.
"I hoped that the burnout numbers would decrease more than they have," she said. "Physicians are still under extreme stress in trying to provide the care for patients that they wish to give."
Reductions in Hours
The most distressing finding is that > one-third of physicians (37%) plan to reduce their hours within 24 hours -- at a time of growing physician shortages -- said Burnell.
"The one positive (finding) that stands out is that physicians are taking care of their own health and wellness and report that it's helping," she said. About 65% of physicians reported having accessed at least 1 wellness support in the past 5 years, up 11% since 2021.
The NPHS includes responses from about 3300 practicing physicians, medical residents, and fellows who were surveyed from March 14 to April 15.
Among the CMA's top priorities is to reduce the administrative burden because that tops the list of what physicians say would help them with burnout, said Burnell.
"The other area is to provide and encourage team-based care," she continued. "That provides some relief for physicians." It also is important to promote the approaches that seem to be helping, such as wellness support and artificial intelligence (AI), she said. In this survey, 59% of respondents who used AI said that it decreased their time spent on administrative tasks.
Burnout by Specialty
Future analyses will examine burnout by specialty, Burnell said. Burnout is particularly high among emergency physicians, regardless of province, according to previous work by Kerstin de Wit, MD, emergency physician and research director for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and colleagues.
The NPHS findings are not surprising, she told Medscape Medical News. "We resurveyed all our emergency physicians in January and found similar results, in that the levels of burnout were marginally less than they were in 2022 but still significantly higher than they were in 2020. Still, a majority of (emergency department) physicians qualify as having high burnout levels."
The Pandemic's Role
A telling finding of her team's research is that emergency physician burnout levels are now higher than they were in December 2020, the first year of the COVID pandemic, said De Wit. "I don't think you can say burnout is because of COVID. It's because of the problems in the medical system."
Among those problems in hospitals are a shortage of beds, physicians, and nurses and inadequate numbers of physicians in outpatient clinics "so patients are waiting for years" for conditions to be treated, she added.
"We don't have the resources that we need to maintain the standards that we had even 10, 15 years ago. The whole system is collapsing. Government underfunding is huge. Routinely, our emergency department is 100% full of ward patients, so we don't have a room with a door or a curtain to see patients in. All the emergency patients are seen in corridors or the waiting room in full view of everyone else. We have people with serious medical conditions who are dying in waiting rooms because we can't get them in."
The issues are complex, but the overarching problem is chronic underfunding that results in physicians "feeling overworked and powerless to help patients," said De Wit.
Burnell and de Wit reported having no relevant financial relationships.
Marcia Frellick is an independent health care journalist and a regular contributor to Medscape Medical News.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
Nearly half of physicians in Canada report high levels of burnout, according to preliminary data from the 2025 National Physician Health Survey (NPHS). The new data show that 46% of physicians report high levels of burnout, down from 2021 (53%) but significantly above the level of 2017 (30%), when the first survey was conducted. The full NPHS 2025 Foundational Report will be released later this year.
Other significant findings include the following:
- 74% of physicians reported experiencing bullying, harassment, microaggressions, or discrimination, a slight but meaningful reduction form 78% in 2021.
- 64% of physicians reported spending significant time on electronic medical records outside regular hours.
- 46% of physicians said that their mental health is worse than it was before the start of the pandemic, down 14% from 2021.
- 60% reported being satisfied or very satisfied with work-life balance, an improvement from 49% in 2021, though slightly below 2017 (62%).
- 37% of physicians plan to reduce their clinical hours in the next 2 years.
Margot Burnell, MD, president of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), told Medscape Medical News that she was "disappointed" with the results.
"I hoped that the burnout numbers would decrease more than they have," she said. "Physicians are still under extreme stress in trying to provide the care for patients that they wish to give."
Reductions in Hours
The most distressing finding is that > one-third of physicians (37%) plan to reduce their hours within 24 hours -- at a time of growing physician shortages -- said Burnell.
"The one positive (finding) that stands out is that physicians are taking care of their own health and wellness and report that it's helping," she said. About 65% of physicians reported having accessed at least 1 wellness support in the past 5 years, up 11% since 2021.
The NPHS includes responses from about 3300 practicing physicians, medical residents, and fellows who were surveyed from March 14 to April 15.
Among the CMA's top priorities is to reduce the administrative burden because that tops the list of what physicians say would help them with burnout, said Burnell.
"The other area is to provide and encourage team-based care," she continued. "That provides some relief for physicians." It also is important to promote the approaches that seem to be helping, such as wellness support and artificial intelligence (AI), she said. In this survey, 59% of respondents who used AI said that it decreased their time spent on administrative tasks.
Burnout by Specialty
Future analyses will examine burnout by specialty, Burnell said. Burnout is particularly high among emergency physicians, regardless of province, according to previous work by Kerstin de Wit, MD, emergency physician and research director for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and colleagues.
The NPHS findings are not surprising, she told Medscape Medical News. "We resurveyed all our emergency physicians in January and found similar results, in that the levels of burnout were marginally less than they were in 2022 but still significantly higher than they were in 2020. Still, a majority of (emergency department) physicians qualify as having high burnout levels."
The Pandemic's Role
A telling finding of her team's research is that emergency physician burnout levels are now higher than they were in December 2020, the first year of the COVID pandemic, said De Wit. "I don't think you can say burnout is because of COVID. It's because of the problems in the medical system."
Among those problems in hospitals are a shortage of beds, physicians, and nurses and inadequate numbers of physicians in outpatient clinics "so patients are waiting for years" for conditions to be treated, she added.
"We don't have the resources that we need to maintain the standards that we had even 10, 15 years ago. The whole system is collapsing. Government underfunding is huge. Routinely, our emergency department is 100% full of ward patients, so we don't have a room with a door or a curtain to see patients in. All the emergency patients are seen in corridors or the waiting room in full view of everyone else. We have people with serious medical conditions who are dying in waiting rooms because we can't get them in."
The issues are complex, but the overarching problem is chronic underfunding that results in physicians "feeling overworked and powerless to help patients," said De Wit.
Burnell and de Wit reported having no relevant financial relationships.
Marcia Frellick is an independent health care journalist and a regular contributor to Medscape Medical News.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
About Half of Canadian Physicians Report High Burnout Levels
About Half of Canadian Physicians Report High Burnout Levels