The Burden of Burnout
The new survey group is not yet in a position to be prescriptive about burnout, Dr. Hinami says. However, he and his colleagues hope to shed some light on possible solutions in the near future.
“What we understand about burnout is that it depends on both individual characteristics and characteristics of the work environment,” Dr. Hinami says. “We’re exploring the kind of ways in which job designs can be altered to help hospitalists—whatever their personal endowments are—to cope better with the stresses of the work.”
According to the research group, one thing is clear: Compensation is not a cure-all. One of the HM11 abstracts showed that satisfaction with compensation was correlated the least with both. “There’s only so much you can be paid more to do before it’s not enough anymore,” Dr. Wetterneck says. “There are some people who take money over a happy job, and that’s what they want to do for a couple of years. That’s not really going to grow our profession in the long run.”
Lisa Ryan is a freelance writer based in New Jersey.
Reference
- Hinami K, Whelan CT, Wolosin RJ, Miller JA, Wetterneck TB. Worklife and satisfaction of hospitalists: toward flourishing careers. J Gen Intern Med. July 2011 [epub ahead of print].
- Hoff TH, Whitcomb WF, Williams K, Nelson JR, Cheesman RA. Characteristics and work experiences of hospitalists in the United States. Arch Intern Med. 2001;161(6):851-858.
