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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019
| Contributor Information
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
Burnout is an ongoing part of many physicians' lives, and for some it can even lead to suicide. This part of Medscape's Lifestyle Report looks at how often family physicians experience burnout, as well as how happy they are in their personal lives and how they spend their time outside of work.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
Working as an FM physician often entails frustration and challenges. Compared with other specialists, FM physicians are among the bottom of the pack. Only 23% of FM physicians in Medscape's survey responded that they were very or extremely happy.
Some totals in this presentation do not equal 100% due to rounding.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
In general, all physicians are happier outside of work than at work, including FM physicians. About half of FM physicians are either very or extremely happy outside of work.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
The percentage of FM physicians who are burned out is similar to that of burned-out physicians overall (44%). FM physicians' rates of reported colloquial and clinical depression are about the same as those of physicians overall (11% and 4%, respectively).
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
FM physicians rely on a mix of positive coping skills and potentially destructive behaviors to deal with burnout. Among all physicians, exercise was the chief method of coping with burnout (48%).
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
Many factors lead to burnout, but the major ones include having too many administrative tasks, spending too many hours at work, more time devoted to the EHR, and receiving too little compensation or reimbursement.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
Of those FM physicians who say that they are depressed, 39% believe that it has no impact on patient interactions. Those who do admit that patient care is affected cite feeling more exasperated with patients, possibly being less careful when taking patient notes, and expressing frustration in front of patients.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
Depression's effects are not limited to patient interactions. For many depressed FM physicians, the condition expresses itself in some aspect of their work behavior.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
Seventeen percent of FM physicians who are burned out, depressed, or both admitted to having had thoughts of suicide. That's similar to the percentage of all such physicians who said they had had suicidal thoughts (14%) or had attempted suicide (1%).
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
The majority of FM physicians plan to seek help. Many physicians have rationalized their exhaustion and discontent, noting that other physicians feel it too. Others say they don't think their degree of unhappiness is bad enough to require outside help.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
Increasingly, hospitals and large healthcare organizations offer physician wellness programs for reducing stress and burnout. FM physicians who noted that their employer did not offer such a program, or that they didn't know whether a program was available at their workplace, were split about how likely they would be to use one were it offered.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
About half of FM physicians (52%) describe their self-esteem as high or very high. Our survey results show that self-esteem varies within the specialties: Plastic surgeons (73%), urologists (68%), and ophthalmologists (67%) have among the highest self-esteem, while internists (50%), oncologists (48%), and infectious disease specialists (47%) come in at the bottom of that scale.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
FM physicians are similar to all physicians in that the large majority are married or in a committed relationship. The percentage of single FM physicians (8%) is similar to the overall physician average of 7%.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
Overall, 84% of physicians say their marriage is either good or very good. For FM physicians, that percentage is 85%. Among physicians who describe their marriage as very good, FM physicians, at 52%, are in the middle of the scale. Happiest are otolaryngologists (67%), plastic surgeons (64%), and urologists (64%). At the low end of the scale are anesthesiologists (47%), cardiologists (47%), and psychiatrists (45%).
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
FM physicians spend about the same amount of time as physicians overall (70% of whom spend 1-10 hours) on personal use of the Internet. Data from USC Annenberg found that the average American spends 24 hours online a week, up from 9.4 hours in 2000.[1]
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
The large majority of FM physicians spend from 1 to 10 hours per week on the Internet for professional use. A quarter spend 11 hours or more per week online for work-related purposes, compared with 22% of physicians overall.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
For FM physicians, Toyota, Honda, and Ford are among the top makes. For physicians overall, the top two are Toyota and Honda, followed by BMW, Ford, Lexus, and Mercedes-Benz.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
Forty-three percent of FM physicians take from 3 to 4 weeks of vacation annually, the same as physicians overall. Only 16% of FM physicians take 5 weeks or more, compared with 23% of all physicians.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
Among all physicians in our survey, 70% say they have a spiritual or religious belief, somewhat fewer than the percentage of FM physicians (77%). In Medscape's 2012 Lifestyle Report, 83% of physicians said they have a belief system.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
Among all physicians, 35% exercise at least four times a week, just over a third exercise two or three times a week, and just under a third exercise once a week or less (including never). A similar percentage of FM physicians (33%) exercise at least four times a week.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
About 52% of FM physicians average less than one drink per week or are non-drinkers. For physicians overall, that figure is 47%. Among all physicians, 8% have at least seven drinks per week, the same as FM physicians.
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
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Medscape Family Medicine Physician Lifestyle, Happiness & Burnout Report 2019
Leslie Kane, MA | February 20, 2019 | Contributor Information
Medscape National Physician Burnout, Depression & Suicide Report 2019
More than 15,000 physicians told Medscape how they feel about burnout, depression, and suicidal thoughts, and also how they attain happiness.Medscape Features Slideshows, January 2019
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Comments on Medscape are moderated and should be professional in tone and on topic. You must declare any conflicts of interest related to your comments and responses. Please see our Commenting Guide for further information. We reserve the right to remove posts at our sole discretion.
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Leslie Kane, MA
Senior Director
Medscape Business of Medicine
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References
Cole J. Surveying the digital future. Center for the Digital Future. USC Annenberg. 2017. Source Accessed November 28, 2018.
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