"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. 

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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.

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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. 

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2016 Year in Review at TheHappyMD.com [Press Release]

Burnout is rampant among American doctors, with recent studies showing as many as 54% of practicing physicians suffering from at least one symptom of this syndrome(1). Burned out doctors make more mistakes, provide lower quality care, get sued more often and have lower levels of patient satisfaction. (2)

The problem has worsened to the point that the CEO of the Mayo Clinic – John Noseworthy MD – recently advised that patients fire their doctor if they sense the physician is burned out, because it is “Not worth the risk of being treated by an impaired physician”. (3)

What should doctors and the organizations that employ them do to address this epidemic?

TheHappyMD.com, Seattle, Washington 1/5/2017

Dike Drummond MD, CEO and Founder of TheHappyMD.com announced today that he personally delivered the Burnout Proof Live Workshop to over 10,000 physicians, in 300 separate trainings, for 48 corporate clients in the calendar year of 2016.

This flagship workshop teaches the signs, symptoms, causes and effects of physician burnout. Attendees also learn how to recognize burnout in themselves and others and how to both reach out for and accept support.

“All physicians graduate with a gaping hole in their medical education around stress management and burnout prevention. Our workshop fills that hole in a public forum and starts to shift the culture of the organization.

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Stop Physician Burnout - Book Review

The Canadian Society of Physician Leaders recently reviewed our book Stop Physician Burnout in their CJPL Journal ... in what I will characterize as glowing terms. 

It is great to see an official review of a self-published book like ours. We have over 25,000 copies in print at this point, helping doctors around the world build their burnout prevention strategy. It is about time an official body of some kind recognized the value of this approach. 

• Get your copy here
• Buy on Amazon.com here
• Use this link for orders of 3 or more copies- we can save you 40% on bulk shipments

Excerpts from the review:

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Date night secrets for the busy physician

Let me ask you a quick question. When was your last quality Date Night? If it was more than two months ago, this post is specifically for you.

One of the key factors in preventing physician burnout is a strong primary relationship with your loved ones. None is as important as your relationship with your spouse/significant other. 

Unfortunately a Date Night is often something that gets left out of our busy weeks. When I train groups of doctors is is not uncommon for half the hands to go up when I ask the question, "How many of you have not had a date night in the last two months." 

Date Nights are a key tool to prevent physician burnout

Here are five Date Night Secrets we teach all of our private coaching clients

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Physician Burnout Book - "Stop Physician Burnout - what to do when working harder isn't working"

Here's the first step-by-step guide to lower your stress levels, prevent physician burnout, build a more ideal practice and a more balanced life.

We have taken over 1637 hours of experience from one-on-one coaching with physician clients and packed it all into our first physician burnout book. This is the first comprehensive manual any doctor can use to stop physician burnout ... and along the way build a more ideal practice, no matter what your specialty.

Here's the Table of Contents, a sample chapter on why Physician Burnout is not actually a "problem" and links to learn more and get your own personal copy.

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