Provider wellbeing is central to the success of your HMG. SHM encourages groups to take a holistic approach to wellbeing, addressing both individual and systemic causes of burnout in providers.
You cannot solve a problem without first knowing what the problem is. The Practice Management Committee identified seven attributes unique to hospital medicine that contribute to increasing rates of burnout among hospitalists. While overlap inevitably exists between drivers, the committee chose this structure to group similar ideas together and draw out common themes. These drivers of burnout are not meant to be exhaustive or indicate these are universally present across all hospital medicine groups.
SHM recommends using these drivers to examine your own causes of burnout and as conversation starters within groups. Sharing these drivers with your team may give voice to what some in your practice are experiencing and may help you come to a consensus about which factors are actively at play in your practice. See below for a brief list of questions to help jumpstart this discussion. Some of these questions were used when we asked people in the field to identify the drivers of burnout in hospital medicine.
Consideration Questions:
- What elements of each driver do I or do others see currently impacting our practice?
- Are there any steps our practice has taken to combat provider burnout?
- What were they and were they successful/unsuccessful? Why?
- How can I better understand from my employees/coworkers how certain characteristics of hospital medicine practice impact their personal wellbeing, whether positively or negatively?
- Is there a space for me to hold a discussion on provider burnout with various members of my team?
- What voices on our team – if any – are currently unheard from yet that should be included in this conversation?
- Are there any immediate low-investment changes I or my group can make to help mitigate any pressure points in our team?