Combating Physician Burnout

By any metric, burnout is a pressing issue in medicine generally and psychiatry specifically—particularly because of its potential impacts on patient care.

Combating Physician Burnout: A Guide for Psychiatrists, the first book of its kind to focus on the field of psychiatry, aims to educate psychiatrists about three key concepts: stress, burnout, and physician impairment. Edited by recognized experts on physician burnout, this volume features contributions from domestic and international authorities in the field, including academic and community psychiatrists, those involved in residency and medical student education, and members of the American Psychiatric Association Work Group on Psychiatrist Well-being and Burnout.

Five sections lay out the scope of the challenge and outline potential interventions:

• The introduction discusses the history and social context of burnout, providing psychiatrists struggling through burnout with important perspective.
• The second section, "The Continuum of Stress, Burnout, and Impairment" explores the potential effects of burnout on clinical care and examines depression and suicide among physicians.
• Environmental Factors Leading to Burnout" identifies contextual elements that seem to contribute to burnout, including the electronic health record and the challenge of balancing professional and personal demands.
• The fourth section of the book discusses a range of systemic and individual interventions, included among them organizational screening for burnout, peer review and support, and mindfulness training and meditation.
• The final section, "Ethics and Burnout," tackles the moral challenge burnout poses to the profession of psychiatry.

Regardless of career stage, readers will benefit from the unique psychiatric perspective on burnout—and the practical advice on combating its effects—offered by this guide.