Physician burnout has improved since the pandemic

For the survey, AMA collected responses from more than 12,400 physicians who were part of 81 health systems and organizations across 31 states. Responses were collected between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2023.

Overall, AMA found that the number of physicians reporting at least one symptom of burnout in 2023 was 48.2%, a decline from 53% who said the same in 2022. This is also the first time that physician burnout has been below 50% since 2021, when a record 62.8% of physicians reported burnout.

"Overall, this signals that reported levels of burnout from this group of respondents is less than it was last year" and in other years after the COVID-19 pandemic, said Nancy Nankivil, AMA's director of organizational well-being.

"This is moving in the right direction," Nankivil added.

However, despite overall declines in burnout rates, some physician specialties continue to report significant rates of burnout. Some of these specialties include emergency medicine (56.5%), internal medicine (51.4%), obstetrics and gynecology (51.2%), and family medicine (51%).

Some ways that health systems can reduce burnout for physicians include:

• Organizing a well-being committee to address any concerns physicians may have
• Reducing administrative burden
• Showing physicians that you're invested in their well-being
• Maintaining open communication with your teams

"The most important thing is that we've got to really listen to our clinical care teams … to provide quality patient care, which should be everybody's priority," said Sapna Singh, a pediatrician and director of physician engagement and wellness at Texas Children's Pediatrics. "The people who take care of those patients day in and day out really need to have a voice."

"And anybody who doesn't take that seriously is probably going to have more issues with burnout and attrition within their system," Singh said. "What our organization has done really well is we've opened up the conversation, we've got avenues for feedback and discussion and on top of that, we have action."

Job satisfaction has also improved

Physicians reported more job satisfaction, less job stress, and feeling more valued by their organizations.

According to the survey, physician job satisfaction increased from 68% in 2022 to 72.1% in 2023. At the same time, job stress decreased from 55.6% in 2022 to 50.7% in 2023.

In addition, more physicians expressed feeling valued by their organizations in 2023 than in 2022 (50.4% vs. 46.3%, respectively). There was also a decline in the percentage of physicians who did not feel valued at all (16% in 2023 vs. 18% in 2022). According to AMA, feeling valued can help mitigate burnout and impacts physicians' intent to leave their current roles within two years.

"It is critical for executive leaders to maintain a commitment to organizational well-being," Nankivil said, noting that "we cannot improve what we are not measuring, so assessing system drivers of well-being through a validated and consistent tool is important."

Nankivil also called for organizations and physician leaders to "tap into resources and best practices by joining a community of thought leaders and change agents invested in this work."

Overall, AMA said that while declining burnout rates are a milestone in efforts to address physician burnout, there still needs to be efforts to address root causes of the problem and better support physicians.

"We must rebuild our health care system by addressing the root causes that most impact health workers' well-being and mental health, including removing administrative burdens and changing institutional practices that prevent our caregivers from accessing mental health care," said Corey Feist, CEO and co-founder of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation. (Muoio, Fierce Healthcare, 7/9; DePeau-Wilson, MedPage Today, 7/10; Goldman, Axios, 7/8; Berg, American Medical Association, 7/2; Berg, American Medical Association, 7/9)

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