School addresses doctor burnout
Physician burnout is sometimes difficult to broach among doctors. The expectation for generations of physicians, reinforced by patients and often doctors themselves, has been to deliver care with quiet reserve.
Thankfully, things are beginning to change — doctors and other health care professionals are realizing that a stiff upper lip may belie hidden struggles with burnout or compassion fatigue, issues far more common than traditionally thought.
Hard data and personal experience have led many physicians to come together to tackle these issues, which are directly linked to the experience of care for patients, and to the quality of that care. The Boonshoft School of Medicine’s Remen Institute for the Study of Health and Illness (RISHI), under the direction of Evangeline Andarsio, M.D., is leading the way, making education for professional resiliency available to all health professional students, resident physicians and practicing health professionals.
For more than a decade, RISHI’s programs have given students at our medical school the tools they need to fight burnout in their work. Its mission is to contribute to healing the culture of health care through innovative educational programs and the formation of supportive communities. Since its beginning, the institute has provided education and support programs for health professionals who practice a medicine of service, human connection and compassionate healing.
RISHI’s Healer’s Art courses are now taught at more than 80 medical schools worldwide. Numerous peer-reviewed studies note their effectiveness. The programs provide innovative tools, practices and resources to help health professionals sustain their service values, humanity, and passion.
Learners find deeper satisfaction and meaning in their day-to-day work lives and strengthen their original sense of calling. They discover that they are not alone and form authentic connections with colleagues while learning tools that help them renew their commitments to themselves, their patients and medicine.
As part of the new Wright Curriculum at the Boonshoft School of Medicine, educational objectives include the human dimension of personal growth and professional development, in addition to the core objectives of gaining knowledge and clinical skills.
Our students learn about factors that affect personal well-being and adaptive responses to stress. They are expected to practice healthy selfcare and to cultivate mutually supportive relationships. During their time in medical school, they refine a personal mission statement in which they endeavor to care deeply and become excellent physicians through a life of service.
In their everyday lives, many doctors lack the support and perspective gained by coming together. Our students are seeing how this simple act provides an outlet for the difficulties their profession may bring. Through reflection and self-exploration, they begin to learn personal strategies that improve their resilience.
We are developing health professionals who not only have the necessary scientific knowledge and superb technical skills to cure, but the heart and resilience to care, and to inspire others to embrace their calling. We are committed to doing all we can to support health care professionals locally, nationally and globally.
Learners find deeper satisfaction and meaning in their day-to-day work lives.