Clinician Burnout Report

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This report breaks down the clinician burnout crisis, looking at causes and solutions for addressing burnout on a systemic and individual level.

What is burnout?

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines burnout as an occupational phenomenon and syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that impacts professionals across industries.⁷

In 2019, WHO changed its definition of burnout from a “state of vital exhaustion” to officially classify it as a syndrome.⁸

This important change further legitimized burnout as a serious problem.

Burnout in Medicine

No profession is more vulnerable to burnout than medicine.

A 2012 study revealed that 45.8% of physicians—far more than professionals in any other industry—reported at least one symptom of burnout on the Maslach Burnout Inventory.⁹ Other healthcare professionals have also reported “rampant levels” of burnout.¹⁰

Burnout by Medical Specialty

While levels can vary by specialty, burnout is a prominent issue across all fields of medicine.

One study found that physicians at the front line of care access— family, internal, and emergency medicine—experienced the highest rates of burnout.⁹ In 2020, Medscape reported that physicians in the fields of urology, neurology, and nephrology were the most burned out.³

The bottom line is, while burnout trends by specialty may shift over time, providers across medical specialties have consistently reported alarming rates of burnout.

What are the signs of clinical burnout?

Burnout is best identified by the following symptoms (which include and build on components from the Maslach Burnout Inventory) in relation to work:¹¹

What’s causing burnout?

Medical professionals have the unique privilege and responsibility of delivering life-saving care. While medicine can be rewarding, it is often an extremely high-stress environment full of stressors that contribute to burnout.

The Leading Causes of Burnout

Administrative Burdens

With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, payment reforms shifted from volume-driven to value-driven, creating new documentation requirements.

• The average physician in the US spends 2.6 hours per week complying with external quality measures, which takes time away from patient care.
• 34.6% of nurses’ time each day is spent managing communication.¹³
• For each hour of clinical face time, physicians spend two hours on administrative work.¹⁰

Increasing the time clinicians must spend on administrative tasks decreases their satisfaction at work and depersonalizes the practice of medicine, all leading to higher rates of burnout.

Managing Electronic Health Records (EHRs)

EHRs have taken on a prominent role in clinical workflows, yet many EHRs do not deliver an easy user experience (UX) for clinicians. In the past, medical records provided a brief patient history to ensure continuity of care. But now, EHRs document against potential medical malpractice, ensure adherence to quality initiatives, and support billing processes.

Relying heavily on a tool with a cumbersome UX increases screen time for clinicians, pulls their time and focus away from direct patient care, and increases their likelihood of burnout.

• It’s reported that anywhere from 13-40% of physician burnout is related to EHRs.¹⁴
• Some physicians spend more than half of a typical 12-hour shift on documentation.¹⁰

Unrealistic, Inequitable Scheduling

Adding to documentation woes is a lack of work-life balance for providers. With an aging population, a growing provider shortage, increasing documentation rules, and ballooning patient demand, clinicians are working more than ever.

• The average physician in the US works 51 hours per week.
• 25% of US physicians work more than 60 hours per week.¹⁰
• Residents are expected to work 80 hours a week.¹⁵

In addition to grueling hours, clinicians are largely unsatisfied with the makeup of their schedules, which tend to lack flexibility, don’t allow for sufficient vacation, and include too many weekend and night shifts.

These concerns are growing across medical specialties, particularly with younger physicians.

Providers who work long hours to ensure continuity of care should have access to equitable scheduling, at a minimum. Issues like unequal distribution of nights and weekend shifts are easily avoidable with advanced scheduling software, such as PerfectServe’s Provider Scheduling powered by Lightning Bolt.

Give Valuable Time Back to Nurses

Nurses play a central role in providing patient-centered, cost-effective care. They are responsible for care coordination and communication with each patient’s family members, as well as a growing care team of physicians and specialists, ancillary staff, and care coordinators. In addition to nurses’ growing list of daily non-clinical tasks, inefficient care coordination workflows prevent them from providing better patient care.

A 2018 time and motion study¹³ revealed that in four hours, nurses spent around 32 minutes communicating with patients and family and 51 minutes communicating and coordinating care with members of the care team³— fully 34.6% of nurses’ time each day. Technology aimed at improving nurse workflows has often contributed to their frustration by adding siloed, task- specific “solutions” to their workload. On top of this, nurse turnover rates increased from 13.5% to 16.7% during 2019.² From 2020-2021, nurses felt burnt out and overworked due to increased patient demand, poor communication, and hospital staffing shortages.

How can healthcare organizations combat burnout?

To date, much of the burden to combat burnout has been left to clinicians. While things like meditation, yoga, and other mindfulness strategies can help curb stress and burnout, systemic change is needed to truly address the crisis.

“No one tasked with saving lives and promoting the health of others should be expected to meet benchmarks set decades ago that leech from a physician’s own well-being and are designed for people with a full-time stay at-home partner.”

Suvas Vajrachara, Ph.D.
Lightning Bolt Founder

6 Steps for Combating Burnout

“Instead of continuing to indulge a culture in medicine that rewards silence, real change will happen when we encourage physicians to talk about the truly unhealthy conditions they’re facing that are affecting their well-being and the well-being of their patients.”

Dr. Dianne Ansari-Winn
Anesthesiologist, Founder of the Physician Vitality Institute, and Lightning Bolt Physician Advisory Board Member