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NEW YORK – The proportion of physicians who commit suicide each year is greater than the proportion of Americans who die of an opioid overdose, according to a series of sobering statistics on physician burnout presented at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting.
“There are about 400 physician suicides very year, which is proportional rate that is about twice the suicide rate in the general population,” reported Darrell G. Kirch, MD, president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Medical Colleges, Washington.
Burnout is variably defined, but characterizations typically include emotional exhaustion, a high sense of depersonalization, and a low sense of personal accomplishment. In the 2015 study, the overall rate of burnout when assessed via the Maslach Burnout Inventory was 54.4%.
At 40%, the rate of burnout found among psychiatrists is lower than the mean and places them toward the bottom of the list in the rank order among specialists. Yet, 40% is still a large proportion. Moreover, Dr. Kirch believes that psychiatrists have an important role to play in recognizing and addressing this condition in others.
“ in the organization you work in,” Dr. Kirch said. The campaign to which he referred was a call to action launched last year by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Led by NAM, it is called the Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience.
In the 18 months since it was launched, “more than 150 organizations, including the APA, have made commitment statements and are supporting the work of the collaborative around improving clinician well-being,” Dr. Kirch reported.
Many tools already generated by this collaboration can be found in the NAM website at nam.edu/clinicianwellbeing. This section of the website not only includes data about burnout as well as presentation slides for download on the topic, but it is expected to be “a growing repository for solutions that work,” Dr. Kirch said.
This was not news to those who attended the APA symposium. When Dr. Kirch asked the audience who had treated a colleague for burnout, almost every hand was raised. This would not be surprising, except that the leaders in this field so far have typically not been psychiatrists, Dr. Kirch said.
For example, an increasing number of medical centers are following the lead of Stanford (Calif.) University, which appointed Tate D. Shanafelt, MD, as its first chief wellness officer. However, to the knowledge of Dr. Kirch, none of the appointments have gone to a psychiatrist.
“It strikes me that if you need a chief wellness officer who not only can understand the dynamics of burnout but can understand what a short path it is from being burned out to being depressed, suicidal, or addicted, who would be better suited than a psychiatrist? I really think that in many ways, this may be a career path for psychiatrists,” Dr. Kirch said.
Even with the appointment of chief wellness officers, the problem will not soon go away. Although Dr. Kirch believes interventions are needed from the beginning of medical training, he acknowledged that eliminating burnout “is a heavy lift, because there is no single solution.” Listing regulatory burdens, administrative burdens, lack of support staff, and a sense of isolation among documented causes of burnout, he believes identifying all of the solutions to relieve stress and improve clinical satisfaction “will be a journey.”
Dr. Kirch reported no potential conflicts of interest.
NEW YORK – The proportion of physicians who commit suicide each year is greater than the proportion of Americans who die of an opioid overdose, according to a series of sobering statistics on physician burnout presented at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting.
“There are about 400 physician suicides very year, which is proportional rate that is about twice the suicide rate in the general population,” reported Darrell G. Kirch, MD, president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Medical Colleges, Washington.
Burnout is variably defined, but characterizations typically include emotional exhaustion, a high sense of depersonalization, and a low sense of personal accomplishment. In the 2015 study, the overall rate of burnout when assessed via the Maslach Burnout Inventory was 54.4%.
At 40%, the rate of burnout found among psychiatrists is lower than the mean and places them toward the bottom of the list in the rank order among specialists. Yet, 40% is still a large proportion. Moreover, Dr. Kirch believes that psychiatrists have an important role to play in recognizing and addressing this condition in others.
“ in the organization you work in,” Dr. Kirch said. The campaign to which he referred was a call to action launched last year by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Led by NAM, it is called the Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience.
In the 18 months since it was launched, “more than 150 organizations, including the APA, have made commitment statements and are supporting the work of the collaborative around improving clinician well-being,” Dr. Kirch reported.
Many tools already generated by this collaboration can be found in the NAM website at nam.edu/clinicianwellbeing. This section of the website not only includes data about burnout as well as presentation slides for download on the topic, but it is expected to be “a growing repository for solutions that work,” Dr. Kirch said.
This was not news to those who attended the APA symposium. When Dr. Kirch asked the audience who had treated a colleague for burnout, almost every hand was raised. This would not be surprising, except that the leaders in this field so far have typically not been psychiatrists, Dr. Kirch said.
For example, an increasing number of medical centers are following the lead of Stanford (Calif.) University, which appointed Tate D. Shanafelt, MD, as its first chief wellness officer. However, to the knowledge of Dr. Kirch, none of the appointments have gone to a psychiatrist.
“It strikes me that if you need a chief wellness officer who not only can understand the dynamics of burnout but can understand what a short path it is from being burned out to being depressed, suicidal, or addicted, who would be better suited than a psychiatrist? I really think that in many ways, this may be a career path for psychiatrists,” Dr. Kirch said.
Even with the appointment of chief wellness officers, the problem will not soon go away. Although Dr. Kirch believes interventions are needed from the beginning of medical training, he acknowledged that eliminating burnout “is a heavy lift, because there is no single solution.” Listing regulatory burdens, administrative burdens, lack of support staff, and a sense of isolation among documented causes of burnout, he believes identifying all of the solutions to relieve stress and improve clinical satisfaction “will be a journey.”
Dr. Kirch reported no potential conflicts of interest.
NEW YORK – The proportion of physicians who commit suicide each year is greater than the proportion of Americans who die of an opioid overdose, according to a series of sobering statistics on physician burnout presented at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting.
“There are about 400 physician suicides very year, which is proportional rate that is about twice the suicide rate in the general population,” reported Darrell G. Kirch, MD, president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Medical Colleges, Washington.
Burnout is variably defined, but characterizations typically include emotional exhaustion, a high sense of depersonalization, and a low sense of personal accomplishment. In the 2015 study, the overall rate of burnout when assessed via the Maslach Burnout Inventory was 54.4%.
At 40%, the rate of burnout found among psychiatrists is lower than the mean and places them toward the bottom of the list in the rank order among specialists. Yet, 40% is still a large proportion. Moreover, Dr. Kirch believes that psychiatrists have an important role to play in recognizing and addressing this condition in others.
“ in the organization you work in,” Dr. Kirch said. The campaign to which he referred was a call to action launched last year by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Led by NAM, it is called the Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience.
In the 18 months since it was launched, “more than 150 organizations, including the APA, have made commitment statements and are supporting the work of the collaborative around improving clinician well-being,” Dr. Kirch reported.
Many tools already generated by this collaboration can be found in the NAM website at nam.edu/clinicianwellbeing. This section of the website not only includes data about burnout as well as presentation slides for download on the topic, but it is expected to be “a growing repository for solutions that work,” Dr. Kirch said.
This was not news to those who attended the APA symposium. When Dr. Kirch asked the audience who had treated a colleague for burnout, almost every hand was raised. This would not be surprising, except that the leaders in this field so far have typically not been psychiatrists, Dr. Kirch said.
For example, an increasing number of medical centers are following the lead of Stanford (Calif.) University, which appointed Tate D. Shanafelt, MD, as its first chief wellness officer. However, to the knowledge of Dr. Kirch, none of the appointments have gone to a psychiatrist.
“It strikes me that if you need a chief wellness officer who not only can understand the dynamics of burnout but can understand what a short path it is from being burned out to being depressed, suicidal, or addicted, who would be better suited than a psychiatrist? I really think that in many ways, this may be a career path for psychiatrists,” Dr. Kirch said.
Even with the appointment of chief wellness officers, the problem will not soon go away. Although Dr. Kirch believes interventions are needed from the beginning of medical training, he acknowledged that eliminating burnout “is a heavy lift, because there is no single solution.” Listing regulatory burdens, administrative burdens, lack of support staff, and a sense of isolation among documented causes of burnout, he believes identifying all of the solutions to relieve stress and improve clinical satisfaction “will be a journey.”
Dr. Kirch reported no potential conflicts of interest.
REPORTING FROM APA
