Career and Life Planning Guidebook for Medical Residents

“Physicians go where they are welcomed, remain where they are respected, and growwhere they are nurtured” – Bill Leaver, CEO Iowa Health System F I E L D N O T E S 1. Make wellness a priority. If wellness isn’t a priority for you (or if you are not well!) it will be difficult for you to assess if it’s present 2. Ask for a list of resources (and be specific!). Is there an administrator who is tasked with this effort? What does their website look like? Do they have a mission statement reflecting this culture and what do they do to role model that? 3. Look at retention rate. How long has the office staff been together? Do they interact outside of work? Howmany physicians have left the practice in the last year; five years? 4. Use your “phone a friend” option. Reach out to colleagues who have worked for the organization for longer than 18 months. Ask why have they stayed? If colleagues have left, why did they leave? Widespread burnout among physicians has been recognized nationwide as a national epidemic. Extensive evidence indicates that physician burnout has important personal as well as professional consequences. A lack of awareness regarding the economic costs of physician burnout and uncertainty regarding what organizations can do to address the problem have been barriers to many organizations taking action. Although there is a strong moral and ethical case for organizations to address physician burnout, financial principles (e.g., return on investment) can also be applied to determine the economic cost of burnout including costs associated with turnover, lost revenue associated with decreased productivity, and financial risk to the organization’s long-term viability due to the relationship between burnout and lower quality of care, decreased patient satisfaction, and problems with patient safety. An example of an organization that is addressing the burnout epidemic head-on can be seen at University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS). Physician leadership there has recognized that in order for their organization to provide quality healthcare, their physicians have to be well. This has led to the creation of the Provider Wellness Program (PWP) at UMMS to address physician burnout. The goal of the PWP is to cultivate engagement, leverage resilience, create joy in the workplace and help physicians thrive in what continues as an extremely fast-paced health environment. As noted above, one of your goals during your “investigation” of a potential employer is to identify Physician Burnout 43 WWW.PHYSICIANCAREERPLANNING.COM