25 www.FLmedical.org FLORIDA MEDICAL MAGAZINE SPRING 2016
By Amaryllis Sánchez Wohlever, M.D.
I
recently saw a physician recruitment ad that said, "Healing
others shouldn't be killing you." An image of a stethoscope
looped around itself pulled me in, triggering ashbacks
of my years in medicine. As I picture the tight loops around
the choking stethoscope — the archetypal symbol of our
profession — I know many physicians feel like this right now.
Squeezed in from every angle. Stretched to the max. Spent.
And they feel this way right as they open the door to greet
their next patient.
Multiple articles attest to the growing prevalence of physician
burnout, which has reached epidemic levels. On any given day,
30 to 50 percent of physicians meet the criteria for burnout
(exhaustion, depersonalization and a diminished sense of
meaning in their work). A recent MedPage article reports the
mean average of physician burnout across di erent specialties
at 45.8 percent, and over 60 percent among emergency
medicine physicians. Even more concerning is the 10-percent
increase in reported rates of physician burnout from 2011 to
2014. A recent JAMA article reports that over 25 percent of
physicians in training meet clinical criteria for depression.
ese statistics raise the question: Have physicians become
patients as they strive to care for people in a broken, complex
and increasingly regulated system? is gutsy question may
just lead to its solution.
I know of a prominent o ce that lost three superb physicians
in seven months, and counting. ey all le for the same
reasons. ey had little control over their days, no joy in their
work, and felt they couldn't provide excellent care with the
time constraints and other obstacles. Fortunately, walking away
is not the only possible solution to these distressing situations.
ere are many ways to recapture what we need in medicine,
as my colleague (we'll call him Dr. Y) learned.
It all started with a simple conversation. I wasn't on a medical
mission, at the hospital or seeing patients. I simply went for
a walk and met a new neighbor. I quickly learned he was a
P
hys
i
c
i
an
,
h
e
a
l
y
ou
rse
lf
—
r
ea
l
l
y
