Online Therapy for Physician Burnout: Doctors Form Union

I was sent this article from the New York Times about how doctors and pharmacists are starting to form labor unions. In this blog, I’ll discuss key takeaways that resonate with me and my work with physicians who are experiencing burnout.

Healthcare Landscape is Changing

Healthcare changed when many independent medical practices lost leverage in negotiating reimbursement rates. These independent practices got bought up by bigger healthcare organizations. Independent docs are now employees of large healthcare orgs. In addition, federal funding tied reimbursement with specific healthcare outcomes. Metrics became king. People with MBAs, and without medical training, began running healthcare orgs like other businesses using metrics and protocols. Corporate is telling suggesting to physicians how to manage the patients to meet metrics and get maximum reimbursement. Physicians are told suggested to follow protocols instead of using their logical decision-making abilities and professional judgment. 

Moral Injury Contributes to Burnout

This is where moral injury occurs. This is where physicians have psychological and emotional distress because there is a misalignment between their deeply held ethical and moral values as a physician and the actions and expectations imposed upon them within the healthcare system. Misalignment with values and the working environment is a wonderful breeding ground for burnout.

Employed Doctors are Cogs

Previously, doctors used to think of themselves as outside of the traditional management-labor hierarchy. It was a thing when many physicians were independent practitioners. As an employee in a huge healthcare system, doctors are becoming more and more like cogs in the system. I wrote a blog about that here. 

With MBAs at the helm, it appears to many doctors that it’s profits over patient care. Many doctors talk about staffing shortages and how they are at a loss on how to ease their unsustainable workload. Many were overwhelmed during the pandemic. They were stretched to their limits. Since the pandemic has progressed, the workload never fully subsided. More was piled onto their plates. This has led to exhaustion and anxiety about putting patients at risk of harm.

Reach out for Therapy for Physicians

This article covers many of the issues I process with physicians in our work together. Healthcare has changed. Big medicine vs small medicine. Logical decision-making and professional judgment vs metric-based protocols. Press Gainey scores. Moral injury. Being a cog. Profits over patients. I work with many early career physicians who are burnt out and this landscape is their first rodeo. They don’t need to continue to be burned out.

When I work with physicians with burnout, we need to recognize the roles the environment and the individual play with burnout. Each has a significant role. As I said earlier, burnout forms when there is a mismatch between the work environment and the individual. Which area do you want to challenge and change? Do you want to challenge and change the environment? Labor unions are one way to do that. Do you want to challenge and change your thought process and experience as an individual? Challenging and changing either the environment or yourself comes with both benefits and consequences. If you want support walking through this, reach out. 

When you’re ready to start therapy with Chris Rabanera, take the first steps with a free 15-minute consultation. I provide online therapy in California, online therapy in Michigan, online therapy in Nebraska, and online therapy in Las Vegas. As an experienced therapist, I specialize in physician burnout, grief counseling, anxiety, and depression. I also provide mental health treatment for men.