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.

A new Family Practice study is showing only 25% prevalence of physician burnout. Does this much lower number create ...

• a controversy

• a "winner" in the "we're less burned out than you" derby

• or just another data point

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The Quadruple Aim Physician Leadership Retreat
Learn more and book your seat 
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There is a new -- and uniquely structured -- study in the Family Practice literature out this month showing a physician burnout prevalence rate of only 25% that is shaking up the widely accepted notion that over half of US doctors are most likely suffering from burnout.  (BTW, the background rate of burnout in the general population of non-physician professionals is widely quoted as being the same 25%)

Let me show you the three absolutely unique features of this research project which render it one-of-a-kind in the universe of physician burnout prevalence studies.  

This new study may be the first step in solving a mystery that has existed since the very first prevalence study was handed out over forty years ago.  I will show you this below as well. 

Physician Burnout: You don't get what you want in life ... you get this instead.

Desire is an interesting and disempowering emotion. When you really, really, really want things to be different and you wake up the next day -- and it is exactly the same as yesterday -- well that is just disappointing to say the least. 

We all have desires, but longing - all by itself - is never sufficient to actually acquire:
- Possessions
- Respect
- Power / Autonomy / Money / A two week vacation or anything else
... except by luck or family obligation.

You can put your hands on your hips, stomp your feet and make demands, but only your mommy is likely to honor that "request" and have the power to give you what you want. And those days are long gone.

How does desire work in adults - and doctors specifically?

In an adult physician - working in a healthcare organization - what you want (your desires) are irrelevant. You can't simply want something new about your job into existence.

Physician Burnout - how to reach out to a colleague in distress - [VIDEO TRAINING]

If you could save someone's life in a two minute conversation, would you speak up?

The situation I am talking about isn't even really a conversation most of the time. It is just you, caring enough to ask a question. If all it took was a question to save a person's life, would you ask it?

Would you ask even if it feels awkward, takes what feels like courage, might make them uncomfortable and you are not sure what to do if they reach back to you for support?

About twice a year I get asked to train a group of physicians for the worst reason possible. They want to learn about burnout because there as been a suicide on their medical staff recently. The people in the room who feel the worst about that are those who knew the doctor was in trouble and didn't reach out. They will take that pit of second guesses to their grave unfortunately.

We have an obligation to support our brothers and sisters in a time of need. Just find a good time, take your "hat" off and ask the simplest of questions. Here's a video to show you how ... 

How did Einstein get to be a physician burnout expert?

If you want to lower your stress levels, build a more balanced life and an more Ideal Practice, remember these two quotes from Albert Einstein and there is literally nothing you can't change.

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Einstein Quote #1:
"The definition of insanity is -- doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."

Here is another way to say the same thing: If you always do what you've always done -- you will always get what you've always got.

The only way to change anything in your life is to take new actions.

Yes it is that simple.

• Stop venting.
• Decide what you really want.
• Take a baby step in that direction.
• Repeat.

Thank you Albert!

Physician Burnout PodCast - The Invisible Destroyer of Value and Quality 

Here is a podcast on a show called Relentless Healthcare Value hosted by Stacey Richter.

She asked some great questions and we went deep and wide into the Creative Destruction of Physician Burnout ... including both Canary and Coal Mine strategies for burnout prevention. Check it out.

USE THIS LINK to listen to the show ... it's a good one.