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ABSTRACT
Physician burnout has become a prevalent issue in intensive care units, and studies have shown it has become worse with the COVID-19 pandemic. Recognizing and reducing ICU physician burnout is important because of the potential effects on patient care, physician health, and the hospital. The most common symptoms of burnout include fatigue, callousness towards patients, inability to feel happy, anxiety, and depression. Causes of burnout can include work related factors, personal characteristics, and organizational factors. COVID has brought unprecedented work flow, increased number of critical and ethical decision making, and increase in death, all of which can lead to burnout. Strategies to combat burnout generally come in two different ways-organization based and individual based. This paper examines these current strategies and their efficacy in reducing burnout and proposes an implementation plan for the ICU to use based on current literature.
Key Words: Physician burnout, ICU, stress, patient mortality
INTRODUCTION
Physician burnout has become an internationally widespread issue. Nearly half of physicians report at least one symptom of burnout, which is twice the rate of the the general working population (Yates, 2020). In intensive care units (ICUs), this number is even higher with prevalence exceeding 50 percent, and has especially increased after the COVID pandemic (Fumis et al., 2022). Burnout is defined as a work-related syndrome experienced by physicians in all stages (from medical students to attending fellows) characterized by feelings of low accomplishment, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization (Moss et al., 2016). Physician burnout is a matter of public health as it negatively impacts physicians, patients, and healthcare organizations and systems. Causes of physician burnout can include heavy workloads, poor work processes, excessive clerical duties, poor work-life balance, and a lack of control (Patel et al., 2018). Personal causes of burnout also play a role. In example, females and younger physicians tend to experience more burnout. Compared to other professions, physicians are almost twice as likely to develop burnout and job dissatisfaction. Effective solutions to reducing burnout are best addressed as a shared responsibility between individuals and healthcare organizations. This paper addresses the efficacy of current strategies to reduce burnout in the ICU and a proposed implementation plan for these strategies.
DESCRIPTION
What is physician burnout?
Physician burnout was first described by Freudenberger (1974)...