For the Young Doctor About to Burn Out
Our health depends in part on health professionals, and there is mounting evidence that many young physicians are not thriving. A recent report in the journal Academic Medicine revealed that, compared to age-matched fellow college graduates, medical students report significantly higher rates of burnout.
Specifically, they are suffering from high rates of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a diminished sense of personal accomplishment. College students choose careers in medicine because they care, because people matter to them, and because they want to make a difference. What is happening to the nearly 80,000 U.S. medical students to produce such high rates of burnout?
It is tempting to invoke the usual suspects: too many hours of study, too little contact with patients, and
