Moral Distress as a Critical Driver of Burnout in Medicine

There are many known drivers of burnout and distress among physicians and other healthcare providers. Current conversations have not fully characterized the significant impact of workload increases alongside staffing shortages as drivers of moral distress and subsequent burnout. Together these factors pose a significant systemic threat to the workforce, and a personal threat to the individuals within it. Physicians are at high risk for moral distress because of work ethic and culture. The drive to do the right thing for the patient limits an ability to set boundaries around work. Moral distress is experienced when the needs of patients can't be met; this drives us to work even harder. Culturally, there has been limited opportunity to acknowledge this distress, so we haven't been able to deal with it outright. Financial pressures continue pressure health systems to drive productivity. Additional patient encounters drive more after visit work that requires time and attention. Simultaneously, the remaining physicians are further stretched as people burnout and leave. There are few groups of workers more mission-driven than primary care physicians. We are committed to doing the right thing for patients and our teams. If we can acknowledge and talk about moral distress as an indicator that we need to change the way we do things, we can use it as a tool to optimize patient care. The physician voice may help us move beyond the learned helplessness and shift to engagement in solutions. We propose three solutions: 1) acknowledge the presence of routinized stress injury that occurs in healthcare 2) leverage data on physician wellbeing to understand how to optimize care, and 3) foster connection and community. Fundamentally, when our healthcare workers feel seen, heard, and valued, they are healthier themselves, and better able to support the missions of the medical system.