The grass maybe greener

All of us have often heard that phrase.. but.. what they don’t tell you is that the grass is greener because there are more COW PATTIES over there..  nothing like a natural fertilizer

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2013/02/doctors-abraham-lincoln-common.html

From the article:

There is a large body of research on occupational burnout in general and physicians in particular, one which I don’t pretend to know very well. You can find a good recent example here. That study, a survey of over 27,000 physicians, defined burnout as the presence of a loss of enthusiasm for work, feelings of cynicism about the work, and a low feeling of personal accomplishment. Those strike me as pretty broad categories, things that would include most of us from time to time. So I am not surprised that an average of 46% of physicians reported at least one of those symptoms. I would have thought it would have been higher. Still, compared with the general population, physicians were around 50% more  likely to report these symptoms.

It would seem like all too many of us in  healthcare  are dealing with this.. Is this a end result of “higher efficiencies” and/or “higher productivity”.. or just the on going interference in our individual professional decisions when it comes to dealing/treating patients?

Could part of this “burnt out” part of a depression because of seemingly everything is out of our control… Depression can lead to a internal distraction or lack of focus.. how much harm could being done to pts because of this distraction? Could this “high productivity” actually causing poorer pt outcomes and ending up costing the system more money.. if we were given the time to ask the right questions and “listen” to the patient?

 

One Response

  1. I believe that the feeling of ‘control’ is vital toward having enthusiasm and enjoying ones work. As chain pharmacists, we have lost most of the ‘control’. We have reached the top of our profession by getting that degree and a job with a chain. Where can we go from there? Unless you want to be a DM or Regional, you are at a dead end job. By the way, who would want the sorry job of being a DM or Regional? Chain pharmacy overs no upward mobility. It offers no chance of being innovative or creative. And, of course, it continues to take away every little scrap of control we might have had. I believe the perception of ‘no control’ leads directly to depression. In one sense, the chain pharmacist is a ‘prisoner’. And, there is the lack of change in our job that reduces our enthusiasm for the job. If every minute, every hour, and every day are much the same, it becomes boring. We see the same ‘type’ people with the same type problems.

    I can easily understand why physicians would become ‘burnt out’. I cannot image being a physician in my area. The typical patient is going to be obese, a lot of them smoke and drink. These patients are the ’cause’ of their own problems. It is not like what happens to some people that have a disease or illness that strikes with no direct cause. No, the typical patient does not take care of themselves, does not eat properly, ruins their lungs with cigarettes, ruins their knees by excessive weight, become diabetics, have hbp and high cholesterol. They start getting bags of meds for conditions that are easily preventable. But, they are just too damn stupid to change their lifestyle. And, I must say, that in my area the primary cause of health problems is the populations stupidity. If you see these type people every day, and you are a physician, can you imagine how depressing it would be?

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