MMA Viewpoint
Healing the Profession
It is a privilege for me to serve as MMA president at a time when our profession is willing to consider the health of its own. I’m not sure that doctors in previous decades would have felt comfortable exploring the topic that I have chosen as the theme of my presidency—physician well-being. But I am thankful that attitudes are changing, and I know from my own experiences, the stories that I hear from colleagues, and the medical literature that this work is needed.
During the last decade, research has called attention to the distress of medical students, residents, and practicing physicians. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, about 400 to 500 physicians commit suicide each year. A 2008 article in the Annals of Internal Medicine reported that 60 percent of medical students have signs and symptoms of burnout, and 11 percent are suicidal. Other indicators of distress or dissatisfaction are the early retirements, frequent relocations, and career changes among physicians during their most productive years.
The issue of physician wellness affects patients, too. There is ample evidence that physician well-being is critical to patient safety. In fact, a 2009 Lancet article called physician wellness “a missing quality indicator.” Physician wellness is also a workforce issue. Physicians are a precious resource in short supply, particularly in specialties such as family and internal medicine and general surgery. We simply cannot afford to lose good doctors to burnout.
For those reasons, and because I have so much respect and affection for my fellow physicians, I believe that we need to do whatever we can to preserve each other’s mental, physical, and spiritual health.
To address the issue, I have convened a task force consisting of physicians and professionals from other disciplines to ask questions such as, What is well-being? and What factors affect our well-being as professionals? We know that valuable work is being done in Minnesota to understand physician wellness and to implement strategies that maintain and restore idealism and collegiality in our profession. We will be studying these efforts, conducting a survey of our own, and sharing findings, resources, and success stories during the next year and into the future. Those of us who are seasoned practitioners can learn much from the students and residents of today. Our younger colleagues value having a balance between their work and personal lives in a way that flies in the face of how many of us were trained. They deserve to have respectful preceptors and teachers who model that balance and the resulting joy of practicing medicine.
I am convinced that the time for healing our profession is now. Many of you have affirmed this conviction. I invite all of you who are interested to join the MMA in this work. Many of you already support your colleagues in formal and informal ways. I would love to hear what you are doing and how the MMA can partner with you. You can contact me through my blog (www.mnmed.org/blog) or by emailing me at plindholm@gmail.com.
You have heard the adage, Physician heal thyself. I say, “Physician love thyself, and love thy colleagues.” Let us get started.