Career and Life Planning Guidebook for Medical Residents

SECTION I: T MINUS THREE YEARS R E A D : Physician Heal Thyself: Why It’s Important To Be Well By now, you’ve heard quite a bit about physician burnout. Whether you’ve experienced it personally, observed it in your colleagues, or reviewed it in our chapter on burnout, it’s well established that burnout increasinglyand insidiously threatensyourprofession on multiple fronts. The battle against the disease of burnout is one that is fraughtwith barriers fromwithin; physicians tend to be pretty busy people! Like our non-compliant patients, it’s easy to find excuses for why burnout has run rampant and wellness is more of a concept than a reality. However, there is increasing data that showing the importance of physician emotional health. Not only is burnout a driver of bad outcomes for patients and physicians themselves, a patient’s perception of a physician’s own wellness often sets the tone for one of the fundamental parts of patient care: the doctor patient relationship (1) . With that in mind, it’s important to know your risk of being un-well . Recommended Tool Maslach Burnout Inventory. Use this tool as a refresher to gain valuable insight about your risk of burnout. http://md.careers/mindgarden CAREER AND LIFE PLANNING GUIDEBOOK FOR MEDICAL RESIDENTS 52