New study: Half of all doctors burnt out
A new study suggests that nearly half of all doctors in the United States are suffering from burnout. The recent report sites a high patient load and increased paperwork. It indicated that doctors are dealing with emotional exhaustion and feel a high degree of cynicism in their jobs.
Dr. Galati
KTRH medical expert Dr. Joe Galati says he believes what the study says. So how does that affect you when you see the doctor?
“There’s a chance that they’re to lose that humanistic feel for the patient,” Galati said. “They will have less time to sit and listen to the patient, which is one of the reasons why we went into medicine in the first place.
Dr. Steven Farber
Former Houston area cardiologist Dr. Steven Farber doesn’t need to read the report to agree with its findings. He lived it. Farber had a successful practice, but found himself burned out after 25 years of treating patients.
“I went into a very severe depression over the course of several years and felt like I was trapped. It was something I couldn’t get out of,” Farber said.
So how did the burnout affect him on the job?
“I became more irritable, less responsive to my patients. I became angrier. My personality totally changed.”
Farber says he turned to drugs to cope and eventually lost his career before recovery.
The future may not be any brighter for doctors. Galati says that Obamacare is going to make things more difficult when it goes into effect.
“Many that are already burned out are looking into the future and saying there’s absolutely no way that they are going to be able to continue. I am sure that these numbers are going to go up in the next two or three years,” Galati said
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