"Physician heal thyself "
Luke 4:23

This bible quote is the single most inappropriate phrase uttered in any conversation about physician burnout.

  Often it masquerades as a witty comeback when blaming a physician for being a human being.

IMHO, these three words are not applicable to anything about the causes or prevention of physician burnout.

To look a suffering doctor in the eye and harummph "physician heal thyself" is the apex of hypocrisy - especially if the speaker is not a doctor - and it needs to stop now. 

In this blog post let me show you why this meme is completely off the mark -- and five actions you can take that will actually prevent physician burnout -- much more effectively than any attempt at physician heal thyself - whatever the heck that is supposed to mean. 

Stop Physician Burnout - the Quadruple Aim Prime Directive for Physician Leaders

The modern physician burnout epidemic is a sign that doctors are at a tipping point ... as in tipping over the edge of a cliff. You think burnout is bad now ... project a future where we simply continue dumping additional responsibilities on their backs as usual.

The Quadruple Aim has the potential to turn the tide of stress and burnout, but only if we can bridge the gulf between UNDERSTANDING the Quadruple Aim and actually IMPLEMENTING it.

Let me show you a powerful way to bring the Quadruple Aim to life in your organization with a simple Prime Directive for Healthcare Leaders.

The National Academy of Medicine just published the first discussion paper from their Action Collaborative on Clinician Wellbeing and Resilience

It is a wide-ranging summary of the issue of Physician Burnout and its negative effects on all aspects of healthcare. 

It ends in classic academic fashion with a prolonged and detailed plea for more research.

Perhaps the most fascinating part of the whole paper is a comprehensive list of physician burnout study references - by far the largest I have ever seen. I share them with you here if you ever find yourself in need of a study to "prove" burnout's negative effects and convince leadership to take a stand for the Quadruple Aim.

Stop Physician Burnout - is Physician Resilience Training a "Con Job?"

'She was eaten alive'

The "con" of building physician resilience has left junior doctors vulnerable to mental illness and suicide by ignoring the systemic failures of the medical profession. Speaking at a session on mental health and wellbeing in Sydney alongside Health Minister Brad Hazzard, Ms Micaela Abbott said her sister was "eaten alive" by the medical profession. 

Dr. Chloe Abbott was 29 and a fourth-year doctor-in-training when she died in January, one of several recent suicides by doctors that prompted the Health Minister and the medical profession to act. 

"My family had really detested the term 'resilience'," Ms Abbott said, recounting her sister's fortitude as a champion swimmer who represented Australia in international competition. 

"That's not something you can do without resilience," she told the crowd of students about to join the profession that Dr Abbott's family and colleagues believed contributed to her death. "

Here is the full article:

It, of course, begs the question -- is the concept of Physician Resilience a con job to defend a hostile work environment?

The answer is Yes and No.

Resilience is necessary but insufficient to prevent physician burnout and hard wire the Quadruple Aim into the workplace.

Stop Physician Burnout: 3 Things Men can do to End Unconscious Gender Bias in the Healthcare Workplace

With more women graduating from medical schools and residency programs every year, the healthcare workplace is becoming more and more gender diverse at the top. It is extremely rare these days to see a wing/ward/department that is staffed 100% with male physicians. With some of our corporate clients, these days employee physician groups can actually have female physicians in a clear majority. 

With this gender shift in full swing, you would think unconscious gender bias against women would be rolling towards extinction ... dwindling away and dying with a whimper as the shards of the glass ceiling tumble to the floor ... right? Not so in my experience. 

I have previously written about unconscious workplace gender bias directed against female physicians here.

In this post, let me show you three simple actions male physicians can take to dramatically reduce the unconscious gender bias in your workplace. Two of the three are simply things to stop doing.  

NOTE:
If you are a woman, please read on to make sure you are not guilty of any of these gender bias reinforcing behaviors yourself. 

Physician Burnout - what to do when the Thrill is Gone

Remember back to your first clinical rotations in medical school ... how exciting it was to finally be face to face with live patients. Bedside conversations, recognizing skin lesions and the signs of CHF. What a thrill it all was. Remember?

How much does the word THRILL apply to your feelings about your practice ... now?

In the last month, how often did you say to yourself in a quiet moment, "wow, that was really cool" about a patient, a diagnosis, a procedure, a conversation with a family member or member of your staff? I sincerely hope you run out of fingers to count them all up.

However, if that is not true for you - if the thrill is gone or you can feel it slipping away - what can be done about it? Can you get the thrill back?

Three Key Components of the Quadruple Aim

Medicine's new Quadruple Aim is the realization that building a quality healthcare delivery system is a lot like building a house.

If you have a good foundation, you can build a solid structure. 

If your foundation is unstable, weak or inadequate - your house will be in a constant state of falling apart. You cobble things back together, just in time for the walls to start crumbling again. 

If the "house" you want to build is a high quality, cost effective healthcare system with high patient satisfaction ... this is the old Triple Aim ... the only legitimate foundation is the health and wellbeing of the workers in the system.

The Quadruple Aim IS the foundation of quality healthcare.

Every single contact with patients, test ordered, procedure performed and drug prescribed ...  is predicated on the assumption that your people are happy and healthy and enjoying their work.

Your ability to fulfill the promises of the Triple Aim is based on the assumption that your employees are at their best. Unfortunately we know that is measureably NOT TRUE. 

If your workers are burned out - quality and satisfaction go out the window and your system lurches from one crisis to the next. 

With recent studies suggesting that 50% of doctors are burned out on any given office day, the logical question is HOW?

HOW do you install the Quadruple Aim in your organization? 

Stop Physician Burnout - when even a scribe is not enough

I was in New Jersey this week working with a group that has several Scribe Pilot Projects in place. I was talking to the physicians about

- How they use their scribes
- The difference a scribe has made to the experience of their practice

And was shocked by their attitude and observations. I can summarize the conversations as follows:

"Sure ... a scribe is great/amazing/awesome ... AND it is NOT ENOUGH"

WHAT ???!!!

That may come as a shock if you - dear reader - do not have a scribe of your own. I suspect it is especially shocking if you think a scribe is the solution to your own stress at work.

Physician Burnout and the Dangers of Venting

When I deliver the Burnout Proof Live Training we always have a little discussion about VENTING. Most of the conversation revolves around if venting is healthy or not. About half of any audience will answer "Yes" to that question. I beg to differ.

Venting is very common in some workplaces, but that does not make it healthy or normal. In fact venting can be downright dangerous because it has the power to shackle you to the throne of Einstein's Insanity Trap.

Watch this three minute video to learn more.

Prevent Physician Burnout - curated resource libraries now available.

When you are aware that physician burnout is not a problem and understand its true nature as a never ending balancing act, it will become obvious you will never find a solution - the key is to focus on building your strategy to maintain balance.

We teach 117 ways to prevent burnout. Each has been proven in the real world by hundreds of physicians in all specialties AND that is a LOT of options to wade through. 

We are excited to share our new curated resource libraries so you can cut to the chase and find the best burnout prevention tools quickly and easily.

Use the links below to dive into our curated collections of tools to Get Home Sooner, Build Life Balance and become a More Effective Leader.

Each of the tools on this page will make sure you actually get home sooner. The library includes our EMR strategy recommendations, BID Huddle power tips, Batch Processing formula, the antidote to Multitasking and much more. All just a click away.