Burnout-on-Healthcare-Professionals

Impact of Burnout on Healthcare Professionals

Healthcare burnout has always been one of the major concerns of workers in the healthcare department. A thorough survey on healthcare workers’ performance shows that almost 25% of the healthcare workforce wants to quit their healthcare profession and switch careers. Out of that drastic percentage, 89% of healthcare professionals want to leave because they suffer from professional burnout.
Although some people may take this term casually, usually this stems from a lot of serious physician mental health issues like depression, chronic stress, and frustration at jobs, along with a drastic effect on their work which affects their patient care. A healthcare provider’s burnout also affects their daily-to-day tasks in the following ways:
Burnout-on-Healthcare-Professionals

Low-Quality Patient Care

The first and foremost downside is the direct impact of healthcare burnout on patients. Healthcare worker's burnout can compromise/reduce the care and attention they usually give to their patients. Healthcare workers struggle to focus on smaller and more crucial healthcare details like patient charts, diagnoses, and other treatment plans for their patients. This results in missed symptoms and incorrect medication that leads to further complications.

Slower Response Rate

Healthcare provider burnout usually causes them to decrease their response rate, jeopardizing their response in critical situations where the patient’s health is at stake, especially in emergencies where a healthcare worker must be able to give their best. These fast-paced environments do not compensate for slow responses and usually have serious consequences if dealt with lightly.

Increased Errors

The constant bombardment of strain can induce heavy healthcare burnout, affecting the worker’s decision-making capabilities, which causes them to make more mistakes in their practice. These errors can be categorized as:

  • Healthcare burnout e.g. misinterpretation of lab results
  • Medical Staff burnout e.g. skipping or giving the wrong medicine to inpatients
  • Physician burnout e.g. messing up the names, diagnoses reports of patients
  • Other burnouts in healthcare professionals e.g. not wearing masks, gloves, following specific area rules, etc.
Some minor errors may not have dangerous consequences but most of the time, the errors can far exceed the limits and can have a critical impact of healthcare burnout in patients regarding their treatment and safety.

Poor Decision-making

When a doctor faces intense healthcare burnout, one of the major impacts he/she suffers is their ability to make critical and life-changing decisions at a particular moment. The impact of the decision can vary depending on the situation they are currently in. But most of the time, heavy or light, a decision can impact the consequences that are to be faced by them or their patients. Poor decision-making can affect them by reconsidering their choices, taking second guesses on what they initially think, and making decisions without considering all the details of a scenario.

Less Empathy for Patients

During healthcare provider’s burnout phase, they most likely avoid situations they are involved in, especially where they use their mental and emotional energy. One of these moments is when they face their patients and listen to their healthcare problems. Dealing with patients can be stressful for them. With a disturbed physician’s mental health, they can lack empathy and emotions. They feel emotionally drained so they don’t feel connected with their patients. This results in poor patient satisfaction and trust.

Rushed Examinations

When a healthcare worker is stressed by burnout, they usually rush with their regular work i.e. patient interactions. They keep it short and rushed without listening to all the details. In other words, healthcare professionals may not be able to perform comprehensive examinations of their patients as they normally would. As a result, most of the healthcare issues go undiagnosed and untreated just because the healthcare professional skipped the details in the first place.

Decreased Patient Satisfaction

If we consider the other side of the healthcare burnout phase, the patients suffer a lot from the situation. For most patients, getting heard and understood by their doctor is more important than the treatment itself. This is why when they see their doctors not connecting with them emotionally, or not truly engaging with their problems, they feel like they’re being unheard, rushed, and uncared for. This lack of empathy, reduced communication, and less attentiveness lead to decreased patient satisfaction towards the healthcare provider and facility. Patients don’t feel valued, they are less likely to follow treatment plans or return for follow-up care, further impacting their health outcomes.

Conclusion

Working as a healthcare practitioner is a noble career choice since it lets you help the people around you. But it also comes with its challenges. As most healthcare workers deliver maximum care to their patients, they often neglect their health and well-being. This can cause redundant and excessive stress in healthcare workers. As a healthcare practice, you should take care of your workers, provide them with opportunities to reduce their stress, patient care workload, and possible burnout, and make them feel comfortable and relaxed at their jobs.
One of the best ways to reduce their chances of burnout is to relieve them with tasks that can trigger their stress. These tasks include medical billing, coding, credentialing, etc. Furthermore, managing electronic health records (EHR), healthcare revenue cycle management, etc. It’s best to delegate such important tasks to companies like MaxRemind Inc. With a proven track record of handling healthcare administrative tasks, you get maximum accuracy with your medical billing, where you can witness a revenue increase of up to 23%!
Let’s end this burnout phase for your workers and start delegating sensitive administrative tasks to MaxRemind Inc. today!
FAQs
What is healthcare burnout?

Healthcare burnout is a term that refers to the emotional, mental, or physical exhaustion a healthcare worker may face due to long exposure to work stress.

How does physician burnout affect patient care?

Physician burnout affects patient care through decreased attention toward their problems, diagnoses, and treatments. Healthcare burnout also causes slow response times and increased medical errors.

What are the signs of medical staff burnout?

The signs of medical staff burnout include chronic fatigue, decreased focus, reduced job satisfaction, borderline performance, etc.

What are the causes of burnout in healthcare professionals?

There are a lot of factors that contribute to burnout in healthcare professionals. These include stressed & prolonged work schedules, higher workloads, emotional stress, lack of work-life balance, etc.