Burnout by John Kello, PhD

"The syndrome of burnout is not a sudden onset; it develops over time. That's what makes it hard to detect until it is full blown."

The Burnout Crisis for Physicians

MDVIP is concerned about the future of primary care and the effects of physician burnout.

We published a series of position papers authored by John Kello, PhD. Dr. Kello is a professor of industrial-organizational psychology at Davidson College and a longtime researcher of performance models. One of these position papers, “Burnout” focuses on the professional aspects of the overwhelming exhaustion that many primary care physicians are feeling.

• Dr. Kello asserts that one of the most critical and pervasive stressors for medical practioners is workload, or better stated, work overload.

• Some sources identify the medical career as number one among all major careers in terms of burnout rates.

• More than half of physicians surveyed by The Physicians Foundation described their professional morale as somewhat or very negative. In the same survey, the most satisfying element of their medical practice is the patient/physician relationships (identified by 79% of respondents).

The individual suffering from burnout will usually experience such symptoms in mild-to-moderate form at first, but over time, the symptoms become more intense.

Find out more about the causes and effects, warning signs, risk factors and how you can reduce burnout before the syndrome is full blown.