Physician Burnout The National Crisis No One Is Talking About Opinion
Though sometimes dismissed as an internet buzzword, burnout is an established, well-studied psychological phenomenon with serious mental health impacts. In the 1980s, social psychologist Christina Maslach developed a framework for identifying and measuring occupational burnout that is still in use today. Maslach’s framework identifies three main symptoms: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization (colloquially called cynicism or disengagement), and low sense of personal accomplishment. The Mayo Clinic researchers found that 62.8 percent of American physicians are experiencing at least one symptom of burnout, up from just 38....