Episode 61: Burnout: It’s Not You, It’s the System
“The problem with burnout is the workplace, not the worker,” shares Dr. Paul DeChant, CEO of the Sutter Gould Medical Foundation. Today, Dr. Paul joins host Lara to discuss the 6 drivers of burnout, including the systemic issues in our healthcare system that really need to be addressed in order to reduce burnout on a whole.
Often physicians blame themselves for their burnout or think it is all just due to exhaustion from work overload. In truth, burnout is largely a result of the system needing to be redesigned to work better for both physicians and patients alike.
The main drivers of burnout are work overload, lack of control, insufficient reward, breakdown of community, absence of fairness, and values conflicts. People tend to become doctors because they love working with patients, but within the current system, two thirds of their time is spent on other tasks like administrative duties rather than time spent actually caring for patients. With restructuring, the system could be adapted to control for the drivers of burnout so that physicians are able to spend more time doing what they do best.
Burnout is not your fault, it’s the system’s. It’s easy to blame yourself for a lack of resilience, but the truth is that the majority of what drives burnout are factors built into the current healthcare system.
About Dr. Paul F. DeChant, MD, MBA, FAAFP:
Dr. Paul DeChant is an senior advisor to C-level executives on reducing physician burnout while building the bottom line. As CEO of the Sutter Gould Medical Foundation he led a transformation that improved physician satisfaction from the 45th to 87th percentile on AMGA’s Provider Satisfaction Survey and achieved recognition for the group as the highest performing among 170 medical groups across the State of California, two years in a row. Co-author of the book, “Preventing Physician Burnout: Curing the Chaos and Returning Joy to the Practice of Medicine”, Paul speaks internationally, and blogs regularly at www.pauldechantmd.com He received his MD from Oregon Health Sciences University, his MBA from the University of Colorado – Denver. His career includes 25 years practicing as a family physician in multiple settings, 30 years of medical group management, and 8 years as a subject matter expert on clinician burnout.
In This Episode We're Talking About:
- Clinicians are knowledge workers who can’t be effectively managed with top-down command and control management, but can be led with empowerment and alignment to achieve great results
- How organizations must have a stable engaged workforce and solid financial foundation in order to succeed
- During the pandemic, we did what we thought was not possible – responding rapidly to an existential threat – due to everyone collaborating around a shared mission
Quotes:
- “The problem with burnout is the workplace, not the worker.” (3:47-3:51 | Dr. Paul)
- “Most people think it’s exhaustion from overload and don’t invest enough in redesigning.” (7:06-7:11 | Dr. Paul)
- “Recognize that the people who are doing the work and are suffering from that dysfunction, they know what’s wrong. They have great ideas to make it better. They just don’t rarely get the opportunity.” (8:55-9:07 | Dr. Paul)
- “The things that drive cynicism, control, reward, community, fairness, and values, those have so much to do with how you lead.” (13:23-13:32 | Dr. Paul)
Links for this Episode:
Connect with Paul DeChant:
Website: www.pauldechantmd.com
Connect with Dr. Lara Salyer:
Website: https://drlarasalyer.com
Catalyst Kit: https://rightbrainrescue.com/p/catalyst_kit
Instagram: @drlarasalyer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drlarasalyer
Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlarasalyer/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DrLaraSalyer
TikTok: @Creativity.Doctor
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About The Catalyst Host, Dr. Lara Salyer:
I worked as a family physician for 15 years until burnout changed the trajectory of my career. I realized I wanted to start a holistic functional medicine practice in my rural hometown and made it happen. In addition to practicing functional medicine, I now mentor practitioners who are looking to change their paths in healthcare by using what I refer to as the “Catalyst Roadmap”. I share each step of this framework with listeners so that they may apply it to their careers, relationships, personal goals, and projects.
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