With life-or-death decisions at the heart of what they do, not to mention the myriad other pressures mounting on their profession, physicians are particularly susceptible to burnout. People who suffer this syndrome are not merely tired of their jobs; they become emotionally exhausted, cynical and doubtful of the importance of their work and ability to do it well, notes an article in the Los Angeles Times examining how physician burnout impacts patients.

There aren't statistics to measure this ripple effect, but psychologists say that the consequences of a burned-out physician treating patients (if he or she isn't among the 17 percent of general internists who leave medicine within 10 years) can be severe. When a physician loses interest in his or her profession or becomes distracted by difficult emotions, patients don't get the attention they may require. For instance, perhaps a patient's high-blood pressure will be less well-controlled than it should be, dangerous side effects will be missed or important instructions not as thorough.

"They may shift from doing their very best to doing the bare minimum," Christina Maslach, a social psychologist at UC Berkeley and co-author of Banishing Burnout, tells the newspaper.

Stressed physicians include those everywhere on the spectrum from thriving on long hours and high stakes to those who've lost their focus and drive to burnout--a group that appears to represent the majority. In a survey of 763 practicing physicians in California, 53 percent reported moderate to severe stress, while only 38 percent described their daily stress as light. Thirteen percent said they used sedatives or tranquilizers, one-third reported little or no exercise and poor sleep and one-fifth worked more than 60 hours per week (compared with 34.5 hours for the average American.)

Some healthcare organizations are beginning to take proactive steps to preserve not just patient but physician health. At the Mayo Clinic, where a survey found that 35 percent of physicians were burned out, some 400 staffers have been trained in a new program that stresses mindfulness, "heartfulness" and a theme for every day of the week (Monday is gratitude, Friday is forgiveness), according to the Wall Street Journal.

"The secret is, there is no secret--one needs to have a multifaceted approach," to survive and thrive as a physician, Edward Creagan, a professor of medical oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and author of the Mayo stress blog, tells WSJ.

To learn more:
- read this article in the Los Angeles Times
- see this piece in the Wall Street Journal
- access the Physicians' Health Study

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