There was a piece posted in the popular physician-oriented website KevinMD.com by an anonymous physician entitled "I’m sorry: Why I lost my love for medicine.” Understandably, it generated a significant amount of comments and shares. But, as is the way with so much on the web, it’s very easy to miss some really important essays. And I didn’t see it until someone shared it with me only a month ago on the heels of a discussion we’d had about burnout, one of my key areas of interest.
As I read it, I identified immediately. It conveyed the sense of being overwhelmed, bombarded, put in no-win situations, taking in so much demand and negativity and feeling demoralized, exhausted and seeing no way through, and the only option being “out.” I read it out loud to myself, once, and then again, and again. In fact, it so deeply resonated that I got choked up as I read it. And since I have coached many physicians grappling with burnout, I felt that it might be helpful simply to do a dramatic reading as part of a podcast introducing the topic of burnout. Clearly, it’s one of the major reasons why physicians' careers get “interrupted.”
Roughly 50% of physicians today are grappling with some element of burnout. There’s a pervasive sense of dissatisfaction across all age ranges and specialties. Worse, because of the malignant ways medical boards invade physicians’ privacy and compel referral to a non-overseen “physician health program” enterprise from which there is abundant evidence of psychological abuse, physicians are inclined to avoid seeking help and , should they pursue help, to attempt to conceal it from their peers, their employer and certainly from their medical board and PHP.
As a result, demoralized and burned out physicians are leaving the field, and encouraging others not to enter it. If they don’t get help with their burnout, it may deteriorate into an emotional illness like depression or, if depression or anxiety was already present, greatly intensify it. And untreated, whether for fear of stigma or opportunistic and traumatic handling by one’s medical board, peer review / performance appraisal entity or the PHP, the risks of disabling outcomes are greatly increased. And that is such an unfortunate loss.
I know this will be one of many visits to the topic of burnout. I welcome hearing your thoughts.
(see: https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2019/07/im-sorry-why-i-lost-my-love-for-medicine.html)
"I’m Sorry, I’m Leaving Medicine"