Please put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others: a call to arms to battle burnout
Abstract
Burnout among healthcare workers has reached epidemic proportions. Obstetrician/Gynecologists are not exceptions. Burnout is a phenomenon that can be difficult to distinguish from other entities, but one that has far-reaching consequences that can be deleterious both to physicians and to their patients. Most worrisome are its insidious nature, its contagiousness, and its relationship to depression. To date there has been a paucity of solutions proven to effectively fight burnout, and the implementation of those that may be helpful has been fragmented. An aggressive and multi-pronged approach is warranted that focus at the individual, departmental, institutional and national levels. Potential solutions should take into account external and internal factors, as well as issues of feasibility, impact and cost. Interventions that may play a role include cognitive-behavioral therapy, enhanced communication, physician wellbeing programs, improving work conditions, and advocacy efforts.
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Burnout has increasing prevalence in HCPs and imparts increasing cost to the health-care system from job turnover, impaired job performance, and exacerbation of health conditions.
“Described as an epidemic in health care,8,9 burnout has increasing prevalence in HCPs and, given its negative sequelae, imparts increasing cost to the health-care system from job turnover, impaired job performance, and exacerbation of health conditions.8”
From Being Mindful: A Long-term Investigation of an Interdisciplinary Course in Mindfulness (2019) · cites this paper as [8]
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- Authors
- Atallah, F., McCalla, S., Karakash, S., & Minkoff, H.
- Affiliations
- Maimonides Medical Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Atallah, Fouad
- Venue
- American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-12
- Volume
- 215
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 731.e1-731.e6
- ISSN
- 0002-9378 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2514402592
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 14
- FWCI
- 13.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Burnout
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
- Keywords
- burnout, healthcare workers, obstetricians and gynecologists, physician well-being, depression, burnout intervention, cognitive behavioral therapy, physician communication, working conditions
- MeSH terms
- Burnout, Professional, Communication, Depression, Gynecology, Health Promotion, Humans, Obstetrics, Physicians, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Resilience, Psychological
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