A recent study, that was published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, reportedly looked into survey data from December 2021 to January 2022 with 2,440 doctors participating, and found that about 63% of physicians had at least one manifestation of burnout in 2021.
The study found that in 2020, the burnout was 38 % and previously it was about 44 percent in 2017, 54 percent in 2014 and 46 percent in 2011. These trends were reportedly similar across specialties.
Referring the study results, The Hill writes “The researchers survey physicians periodically, asking about work-life integration. Results from a 2020 survey showed variability in burnout, with specialties dealing with the coronavirus pandemic most affected.”
The American Medical Association (AMA) President Jack Resneck Jr. wrote in a press release “These insights may be important to understand the ongoing situation that physicians are living and working through. While the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic are hopefully behind us, there is an urgent need to attend to physicians who put everything into our nation’s response to COVID-19, too often at the expense of their own well-being. The sober findings from the new research demand urgent action as outlined in the AMA’s Recovery Plan for America’s Physicians, which focuses on supporting physicians, removing obstacles and burdens that interfere with patient care, and prioritizing physician well-being as essential requirements to achieving national health goals.”