July 4, 2019 – Resident Burnout

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04 — 1.5MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Anchor lead: A new study is attempting to assess the roots of burnout among medical residents, Elizabeth Tracey reports

When physicians report being burned out, everyone suffers. Now a new study is assessing the roots of burnout among medical residents. Brian Garibaldi, one of the study’s investigators at Johns Hopkins, explains.

Garibaldi: Burnout has been rising among all tiers of medicine, but is particularly high among trainees. There must be a better way to train residents. The way that we train residents hasn’t really changed in decades, but the way that we practice medicine obviously has. And so this is an incredible opportunity to gather data on the way we do things now, how what we do and how we do it impacts resident wellness, satisfaction with their job but also their clinical skill, and then to use that data to drive interventions that hopefully will make the environment better for residents but also ultimately better for patients.  :32

Garibaldi notes that burnout impacts patients because providers may make more mistakes or be otherwise not as engaged in care, as well as being at higher risk for suicide. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.