Moral Injury of Healthcare—It's NOT burnout

LEARN MORE: www.moralinjury.healthcare

Wendy Dean, MD and Simon Talbot, MD, authors of the seminal STAT news article "Physicians aren't 'burning out', they're suffering from moral injury," present the crisis afflicting America's healthcare professionals.

Physicians in the US commit suicide at an alarmingly high rate—44 per 100,000 physicians kill themselves each year, a rate twice as high as that of active-duty military. To address this issue, we must first uncover the drivers of physician distress.

"Burnout" is an inaccurate description of the effects of working in the healthcare industry today. When doctors must answer to employers and insurers first, they are no longer able to take care of their patients according to their Hippocratic Oath. This is a dark and difficult moral dilemma that causes many physicians and other healthcare professionals an internal moral injury.

How can we take steps toward alleviating physician distress? Firstly, we must recognize the three elements of burnout that often get lumped together under the blanket term: (1) Impairment, (2) Strain, (3) Moral injury.

The first steps we can take toward alleviating physician distress: (1) Value physicians, (2) Value the physician-patient relationship, (3) Rebuild a sense of community among healthcare professionals.

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