When it comes to physician burnout, there’s good news and bad news for emergency department doctors. The good news is that physician burnout has dropped from 53% in 2022 to 48.2% in 2023, according to a July 2024 report by the AMA. The bad news is emergency medicine doctors still lead the pack: 56.2% of emergency physicians report symptoms of burnout.Physician burnout is a reaction to long-term stress in the workplace. Scheduling is a significant stressor for hard-working docs. Lack of control over their schedule, excessive working hours, unpredictable shifts, and limited flexibility can all play a role in the development of burnout.
Effective shift scheduling allows physicians to take control of their personal and professional lives in ways that reduce burnout.
Effects of Physician Burnout
Physician burnout have wide ranging effects that can affect patients, doctors, and even healthcare institutions.
Effects on patients include:
• Lower quality of care
• Increased medical errors
• Poor patient satisfaction, which can translate into lower compliance and poor outcomes
Effects on physicians include:
• Increased risk of depression and suicide
• Early retirement
• Cognitive impairment
Effects on clinics/institutions include:
• Lower quality of care and increased medical errors
• Poor patient satisfaction
• High physician turnover Recognizing Physician Burnout
Burnout has three cardinal symptoms:
Exhaustion – characterized by low physical and emotional energy; physicians experiencing exhaustion may think, “I’m not sure how much longer I can do this.”
Depersonalization – occurs when the physician is not emotionally available for their patients or anyone else; cynicism, sarcasm, and the need to vent frequently are the main characteristics of depersonalization.
Lack of efficacy – develops when the physician begins to doubt the value and meaning of their work; they may think, “What’s the use of trying?”
Shift Scheduling can Reduce Physician Burnout
Effective physician scheduling can reduce physician burnout in a number of ways, such as:
• Flexibility in work hours
• Accommodating the preferences and personal needs of emergency department physicians
• Promoting a healthy work-life balance
• Reducing fatigue associated with irregular or long shifts
• Creating an environment of fairness, with equitable distribution of schedules
Specific features within emergency medicine scheduling programs can reduce emergency physician burnout even more. These features include:
• Automated shift relationships to help doctors avoid working consecutive shifts
• Recording desired shifts, sequence of shifts, shift types, etc., to make it easier for physicians to get the shifts they prefer
• Ability to print schedules that look like calendars
• Customizable appearance
• 24x7 Online and mobile access to personalized schedules
• Reminders through email and text messaging
• Notifications of changes to current and future schedules
• View shift availability and requesters
• Online requests of shifts, time off, and vacation
• The ability to classify shifts as Dislike, Prefer, Desire, or Conflicts
• Recording of shift preferences as “need off,” “wish off,” and more
• Entering future shift requests and confirming requested shifts
• Allow providers to split, trade, or give away shifts
For more information about reducing emergency physician burnout with the use of shift scheduling, contact ByteBloc. We’ve been scheduling emergency providers since 1989, so we’re highly experienced in helping emergency departments and their physicians create workable, seamless schedules that benefit everyone. What’s more, we are always improving and enhancing our scheduling system, and adding new features to make your life even easier.
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