Alarming? Sobering? Why?
I have written over and over about the “cavalry” that is pretending to come and save us physicians from burnout. My point has always been that we need to be leery of anyone coming to help, especially when they took part in, benefitted from, or profited in those things that caused the problems in the first place. Today’s focus is a new one, however. Here is the article from the AMA Wire and it is called Alarming survey results spark 7 system changes to buck burnout. Here is my question. Why the hell were things so alarming? How clueless did administrators have to be to not see the staff sputtering out around them? Or did the administrators just not care? The article goes on:
The results were sobering. Fifty-nine percent of Carilion physicians were experiencing high burnout. Half of medical students, physician assistants and nurse practitioners also reported burnout, with burnout being worst among residents.
Why was the results sobering? Once again it is hard to believe that people who were supposed to manage other people did not see how bad things were.
So were they clueless or indifferent? I would love to press their feet to the fire and make them choose. I know it won’t happen but I can dream, right?
All right, now that I got that out of my system, point me to the fake wellness seminars and happiness committees that will pretend fix all this. Or just give me some scotch.
Perhaps the solution easily applies to other areas. Stop treating each other like valueless trash.
Surely there is plenty of depression in the North Korean gulags of today and burnout in the Soviet gulags of yesteryear. Auschwitz was no doubt a hotbed of PTSD and self-esteem challenges. These are merely extremes of human malice; and malice is merely exaggerated contempt.
Arrogance and contempt prevail in the American medical monolith. Orwell would guffaw over our “helping industry.” We no longer take a moral stand against brutality.
Yet all civilization is, is the aggregate of centuries of moral opposition, to brutality and contempt for humanity. It is a daily thing and an individual choice. When there are more choices in favor of humanity and dignity, we advance.
I use a personal rule: when one substitutes the label Jew (or nig_r) for any other label when hearing contemptuous speech, does that lay open its inner malice?
The problem with doctors is discussed so dispassionately as though we were vivisection animals, as though slave cargo on the West Africa slave ships. Why do they lose profitability so easily?
Be careful in the question that you ask. In classical science, that which is asked must be answered. We might not like what we hear.
Amen….by far , communication with other “health care providers” is one of the more stressful parts of my 12 hr ED shift …..I often want to ask the surly, verbally abusive provider on the other end of the line if they are indeed in the business of “caring.” Treating each other with respect and kindness would , in my opinion , help with the burnout issue K.Dumont PA
Truly, a bottle of Scotch would do way more good than any of the weak and ludicrous suggestions made by the AMA. The associations, and the policy makers still have no clue, or just plain don’t give a flip about what is actually causing the burnout.
What is a good affordable brand of Scotch, for medicinal purposes of course…
Plenty of affordable: Johnny Walker, Famous Grouse, Cutty Sark. If you want really good, Talisker a single malt, made in the Isle of Skye.