Physician Burnout: Leaving Medicine?

I was consulted on a common physician burnout scenario. An early career Ob-Gyn physician began to have anxiety. The physician seemed to be seeing more and more complicated patients. The physician extenders were handling all the less complicated cases. The physician was struggling with anxiety and was having the thoughts that every delivery could have bad outcomes and every decision made in surgery will be the wrong one. The physician attempted to handle these issues by seeking therapy. The physician tried one of those popular tech-telehealth therapy companies but couldn’t find one she felt connected with or understood by. The last therapist said the physician's job will always be stressful and there's nothing else they can help her with. This physician feels trapped because they spent their life training for this moment. What is this physician to do?

I’m Sorry About Your Poor Experience

I’m sad. I’m sad because this person had poor experiences with therapy. Therapy is supposed to be helpful but in this case, it was not. I can only assume it was one of two issues here. 1) The therapist providing therapy was not an expert in physician burnout or 2) The fit between the physician and the therapist was poor. I’m also sad because the treating therapist should have recognized the client was not making progress and either referred out to a specialist or consulted with peers to make progress toward treatment goals.  Either way, the physician has a bad taste left in their mouth and may not seek any help again. I wrote two articles, here and here, on how to find the right therapist for you.

Addressing Burnout and Emotions

In this situation, it may or may not be only anxiety, and it may or may not be burnout. If this was a physician burning out, there should be lots of education about the idea of burnout. This, “Your job sucks and there’s nothing I can help you with” is bullshit. There is always something a therapist can do, even if that means referring the client to a different therapist. If this was burnout, here’s a major idea to explore.

Job Setting and Personal Characteristics Contribute to Burnout

I was interviewed for an article by Authority Magazine. I blog about it here. I stand firmly by the idea that burnout is an organizational issue, as opposed to only an individual issue. It is the environment people are working in that contributes to burnout. Yes, individual and personal characteristics contribute to burnout but are not the only factors. Organizations will place burnout on the individual as opposed to acknowledging the environment and job play a much more significant role in burnout.

Coping Skills for Physician Burnout

Have you done module 47 in the mandatory wellness training? Did you get a slice of pizza from the break room? Have you tried mindfulness or started triathlon training yet? Or maybe you’ve been directed to the EAP program?  I’m sure the administration has told you about all of these methods to handle your burnout. One reason why this doesn’t work is because of activation energy. Activation energy is the energy needed to make something happen. Do you know how hard it is to start a mindfulness practice when you are exhausted? Who has time for yoga when you don’t have any time for yourself? And start a health and fitness training program? Yeah, right?  Here’s a coping skill you can use right here and right now. The intervention is called 3 Good Things. The TLDR is every night for the 7 days, write down 3 good things that happened in your day. That’s it. Read the blog if you want more information about this intervention.

Change Environment to Change Burnout

Here’s the situation. There is a house on fire. A wire is sparking and setting the house on fire. The continuous spark is the work environment. Coping skills are your fire hoses. You can use your fire houses or coping skills to manage the burning house. No matter how much you use your hoses, the fire can reignite because the sparking wire has not been addressed. One way to address the sparking wire is to challenge and change the environment. Another way is to leave the environment. There are several ways to address burnout and changing the environment is one way.

Does this mean the ob-gyn has to leave the practice of medicine? I can say with confidence the physician does not need to stop practicing medicine. Leaving medicine is one way but it is not the only way. There are other ways.

Reach out for Therapy for Physician Burnout

When you want to address your physician burnout, get therapy for physicians. Reach out for a free 15-minute consultation.  I’m Chris Rabanera. I provide online therapy in California, online therapy in Michigan, and online therapy in Las Vegas. I work with issues such as physician burnout, anxiety, depression, therapy for men and grief counseling.