“The Top 5 Drivers of Burnout”

 #1: Loss of Autonomy

  I think of this is the loss of things that you can control yourself within yourself and within your local environment. Most of the studies show that loss of autonomy as a top driver of burnout.

#2: Loss of Control

 This is different than autonomy. Control involves things outside of you. So all of a sudden, what instruments you’re using the OR or because of costs and that changes things to have something cheaper, that’s not as good as you think. That’s a loss of control.

#3 Loss of Value

  You stay up all night and you take care of dozens of patients on call. This is a requirement, not something where you’re valued for what you do and paid for being on call. Being undervalued, you’re responsible for everything. We need to be in charge of everything yet we don’t get rewarded with the value that we deserve. I’m not saying that doctors are underpaid, but I think you need to be paid for what you do and value you bring to the marketplace, your patients, the hospital, etc.

#4 Lack of Being Heard

 Lack of being heard when there is a problem. And we communicate the fact that there’s a problem going on, and there’s either no listening, or you’re not being heard. That’s very frustrating and that also drives burnout. That goes back to kind of that loss of autonomy and loss of control. I think that’s huge.

#5 Lack of Action

 And here this is where I think it’s lack of action by your system or by your work environment. Perhaps your employer, if you’re if you are employed or by your group, lack of action to correct things to make things better, and lack of lack of action, sometimes by yourself. And this is where I put a little tiny smidgen of personal responsibility it is to take agency over the other four factors and take action to improve those.

  So five things that I believed the drive your burnout and are supported by facts: loss of control, loss of autonomy, being undervalued, lack of being heard, and lack of action.

  So think about those work on those, drive those forward,  and help yourself get better.

Burnout Recovery is for you!