“Burnout…is a syndrome of depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and a sense of low personal accomplishment leading to decreased effectiveness at work…primarily affected those in ‘helping’ professions”
Hey!… Hey!… You!… PT’s!…Are you listening?!….
Does this sound like someone you know?
“The high prevalence of burnout among physicians results in lowss of engagement and commitment…5 out of every 10 physicians affected by burnout”
Loss of engagement and commitment with patients. Hmmm? How many therapists do you know that are “punching the clock”?
I have a problem with a lack of engagement. It just isn’t something that I tend to do often and I have a short attention span. Maybe not as short as the new average of 9 seconds, but pretty darn short. I just shift the engagement to something different.
A therapist that isn’t engaged with the patient is problematic. Patients are coming to us for our professional opinion and placing trust in us to help them along their journey of pain or functional restoration. To have loss of engagement places that trust at risk.
Not only is trust lost between the patient and the physical therapist, but also between the patient and the profession of physical therapy.
Remember young Jedi, YOU REPRESENT THE FORCE (by force I mean the PT workforce). Your burnout makes me look bad. Not that it’s all about me, but really…it’s all about me.
50% of physicians are affected by burnout?!
I haven’t seen any studies on prevalence in our profession, but I hope it’s not that high.
“Many factors contribute to burnout, including high workloads; an inefficient environment; problems with work-life integration; lack of flexibility, autonomy, and control; and loss of meaning in work.”
I’ve seen research showing that treating 20 patients per day may lead to burnout. I don’t know if it’s the 20 patients or the notes that come along with the 20 patients, but….20 patients!!! REALLY?
At my busiest time, I was only seeing about 15 per day. This may be why I have yet to experience burnout from treating patients.
An inefficient environment. I have experienced this multiple times. Sometimes people and companies are just set in their ways and don’t see a good enough reason to change.
Problems with work-life integration: this is what I am struggling with right now. Is the juice worth the squeeze? This is a phrase that I am thinking of more and more currently. When I think of how many hours that I am away from my kids and wife, I have to think (or my wife makes me think) about where do I want to be in life 5 years from now. Managing a clinic takes a ton of time. If you have never tried to build a “brand”, it takes a lot of time and work in order to get a personal brand out to the community.
Autonomy and control: I haven’t personally experienced a loss of control in the clinic, but I hear from PT’s all over the country that their boos/manager/director almost dictates the care in order to create a “comprehensive care plan”. Now this sounds all good and nice and all, but in the end the question has to be asked…Why? Why does the boss want a comprehensive plan?
The reason is no different than any other business and it has to do with money. Clinics make more money by doing multiple different treatments than providing one treatment that may have the best outcomes. It’s sad…but I hear it frequently.
“Physicians who suffer from burnout are impaired and they and their organizations are at risk of having higher rates of medical errors, less professionalism, lower patient satisfaction, and lower productivity, as well as more turnover and suicidal ideation”
Does burnout sound good?
Not like the burnout that I would do on my BMX bike as a kid or in my F-150 as a teenager.
Burnout leads to major issues at a personal and corporate level. I wonder though if the companies care about burnout. Turnover happens in physical therapy. Although it costs money to train a new therapist, it may not matter since many companies see a PT as a widget instead of as an autonomous practitioner. If one therapist can easily be swapped out for another, is burnout an issue at the corporate level?
Rhetorical questions of course.
“Organizations that make investments in leadership development experience substantially higher returns than those that do not.”
This is a great quote. Invest in your people, more so than seeing your people as an investment.
For instance, when you put money into an IRA, it sits there and you hope it grows (at least matches the 10% historical APR). You are passive in this role. Hopefully money makes money. This is what typically happens in a company. The employee is expected to go out and grow individually, which benefits the company, although the company may not take part in that individual investment.
I would like to see it more as owning a home. This is an investment also. It averages about a 2% gain per year, but the individual living in the home has to actively care for the investment in order for it to keep growing. I would love for more businesses to see employees as an investment for which they should foster care. High tides raise all ships. When the employee is successful both on an individual and business sense, everyone wins.
“Clinician engagement is empirically linked to more effective organizations, with outcomes including lower turnover rates, superior clinical outcomes, better patient experience, and superior financial performance”
Does this sound like a positive experience for clinicians and patients alike?
If the clinician is engaged in not only treating patients but also regarding the health of the business everyone wins.
Some therapists don’t see themselves as business people, which is a shame because if we don’t get the patient in the door, then we can’t help that person. We have to feel confident in attracting our customer (someone with functional complaints that may or may not relate to pain), educating our customer, selling to our customer and then accepting their money. Sales doesn’t have to be a bad thing. I have been reading Rabbi Daniel Lapin and have learned that money is just as much a show of appreciation and gratitude as it is a financial transaction.
“Physicians experience highest levels of engagement when they have a degree of control over their work environment. Engage Physicians tend to receive higher patient satisfaction ratings.”
This is an indication of autonomous practice. When a clinician gets to dictate care, instead of having care dictated to the clinician, then everyone wins again.
“Combating physician burnout is a twofold process that involves 1. mitigating the structural and functional drivers of burnout and 2. bolstering individual resiliency.”
This is the Mayo Model to try to reduce burnout in physicians. This appears useful for many other health professionals also.
Quick Link to the article here