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Find the Right Work-Life Balance to Avoid Physician Burnout

June 7, 2019

Achieving work-life balance can be particularly challenging for physicians, who often devote far more than 40 hours per week to work-related activities. This imbalance often leads to physician burnout. With the support of administrators, physicians and other clinicians can maintain balance between work and non-work activities by using deliberate planning and by setting realistic expectations.

doctor-hiking-with-family-on-day-off_socAMA STEPS Forward, Professional Well-Being Module: Improving Physician Resiliency

This module is designed to help clinicians foster self-care and protect against burnout. The burden of increasing regulatory pressures and evolving payment and care delivery models is a chief cause of physician burnout as it reduces the amount of time clinicians spend on their core mission: delivering direct patient care. Clinicians also experience burnout caused by demanding workloads, nights on call, and other common clinic stressors. Learning resiliency skills to combat these added pressures helps physicians have longer, more satisfying careers and reduces the risk of burnout. By promoting well-being and improving personal resiliency, clinicians are also able to positively impact patients and the practice as a whole. The module includes practice steps, downloadable tools, and implementation support.

Stanford Medicine WellMD

Stanford’s WellMD was created in 2015 with a stated mission “to advance the well-being of physicians and those they serve.” The WellMD site contains articles, videos, a course for Chief Wellness Officers, and a calendar of events. The model is based on Stanford’s professional fulfillment model, consisting of three domains: Culture of Wellness, Efficiency of Practice, and Personal Resilience.

National Academy of Medicine’s Clinician Well-Being Knowledge Hub: Personal Factors

This website is a product of the Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience, a network of more than 50 organizations committed to reversing trends in clinician burnout. It is intended to provide an easy-to-navigate repository of helpful resources for those seeking information and guidance on how to combat clinician burnout in their organizations and personal lives. The Clinician Well-Being Knowledge Hub: Personal Factors page contains links to resources in the categories of unbalanced work/life integration, career fit/career stage, and relationships and social support.

NORCAL Group On-Demand Webinar: Boosting Your Immunity to Burnout

This NORCAL Group webinar identifies conditions that could lead to burnout and the signs and symptoms to watch for in yourself and your colleagues. The activity provides you with resources and strategies to build resiliency within yourself and your healthcare team to prevent and combat burnout.

Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s “Joy in Work”

IHI developed the “Joy in Work” initiative in partnership with experts around the world with the stated intention “to share principles and techniques that enable the workforce to truly thrive, not just persevere.” The Joy in Work site offers videos, publications, and other resources to help clinicians develop joy in work and improve work-life balance.

American Academy of Family Physicians: Four Tools for Reducing Burnout by Finding Work-Life Balance

This article is the last in a series published by AAFP on physician burnout. It discusses how to increase your energy by finding ways to recharge and create more balance in your life, and provides four tools for creating work-life balance.

Filed under: Physician Burnout, Professional Wellness

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