The Growing Crisis of Clinician Well-Being

The Growing Crisis of Clinician Well-Being

More sleep is not the answer:

Developing Post-Pandemic Resilience and Well-Being

The pandemic-induced exhaustion that is being experienced so acutely today is creating a concern not only about the present but maybe more so about the months to come. Many factors are contributing to the ongoing feelings of exhaustion in these highly volatile times, but underneath all of them is a significant but silent concern that healthcare professionals are experiencing: “How long will I be able to keep this up?”

We all wish for simple answers: more sleep, better sleep. A short vacation to unplug from demands. Those may feel good in the moment, but are incomplete solutions for the debilitating burden many clinicians are stoically shouldering.

Last December, AMA President Dr. Susan Bailey wrote that physician burnout “presented an epic challenge” before the pandemic and that now it is critical that we address the growing crisis. Each month that passes in 2021 we hear more stories that affirm Dr. Bailey’s comments and the full implications of the challenge are just beginning to be revealed.

Where to Begin: Awareness

Post-pandemic exhaustion has exacerbated many of the energy-draining dynamics clinicians have faced in recent years. Increased isolation, uncertainty about the future, increasing pressure to do more, do better have felt like a relentless taskmaster from which there is no respite. Now added to that, many are feeling an emotional exhaustion hangover in what resembles post-traumatic stress syndrome. Even for those providers who did not personally experience trauma, their anticipation of potentially traumatic experiences or their connection with those who did experience trauma are causing a similar emotional impact on them.

Sadly, the “movement toward normal” that many people are celebrating is not fully shared among clinicians because often it means yet another change, more complexity, more hours at work. The exhaustion hangover is showing up as depression, impatience, inability to focus, decreased quality of decisions, increased emotional isolation, and an increase in self-sabotaging behaviors. It is time to become very serious about implementing solutions that care for those who care for others.

The Solutions

No single solution provides the full answer, but each has its own value, and collectively these solutions can transform the current crisis into a launch pad toward a better future for every aspect of healthcare. To successfully address the crisis at hand, solutions will need to provide relevant information and resiliency skills within the context of supportive connections among clinicians. Here are a few examples of the questions that need to be addressed…

• New Awareness. How does burnout commonly reveal itself among clinicians? How do I move beyond self-deception to gain a realistic awareness my personal health? How do I discover and address the unique factors that are contributing to my burnout and the consequences I am likely to experience if I fail to act?

• Helpful Attitudes. How do I identify and replace the false beliefs that are sustaining my unhealthy behaviors? How do I find and adopt new attitudes toward myself and others that will support healthy choices and behaviors?

• Supportive Connections. How do I break through my feelings of isolation to begin cultivating relationships with peers that will contribute to my feelings of well-being? How do I cultivate peer relationships that are characterized by openness, respect and compassion where we can work together to find solutions to our exhaustion?

While it is certainly helpful, more sleep is not the answer. To begin working our way out of the current crisis of exhaustion among physicians will require heightened awareness of what is happening, replacing the attitudes that are sustaining the problem with attitudes that promote healthier choices, and building supportive relationships with peers where learning about each other results in learning from each other.

It will take time. While our minds move at the speed of technology, our deeper emotions are uncovered and addressed at the speed of agriculture. There are no simple or quick solutions, but there are genuine solutions that will restore health to mind and body, that will restore the joy of practice, that will unleash optimism, creativity and innovation that lead to a better future for physicians and for the whole of healthcare.

If these questions above are keeping you up at night, we invite you to give us a call – we’d love to start a conversation as thinking partners on your journey to “bring back the joy of practice.” We would be happy to share with you how we are helping our healthcare parters overcome the physical and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged exposure to stress.

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