The January edition of the Betsy Lehman Center’s monthly newsletter,
Patient Safety Beat, features a story by Dr. Diane Shannon that examines some of the current thinking and approaches to the challenge of physician burnout. In January, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Harvard Global Health Institute, the Massachusetts Medical Society, and MHA released
this paper that focuses on the pervasive problem of physician burnout – a syndrome involving one or more of the symptoms of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished sense of personal accomplishment. Physicians experiencing burnout are more likely than their peers to reduce their work hours or exit their profession.
The Betsy Lehman Center’s newsletter article notes MHA’s
Caring for the Caregiver initiative, which includes a focus on gratitude for clinicians’ work, workforce safety, and well-being. The newsletter, which is dedicated to sharing patient safety news and information for use by organizations across the state, also features two articles on an extensive multi-media project by Boston Medical Center, called “Ok to Proceed?,” which uses video, illustrations, text and case studies, to make patient safety principles and lessons more accessible to a variety of learners.