Physician burnout rate has dropped 14.6% since 2021

Last week, the American Medical Association issued a news release announcing that physician burnout rates have dropped below 50% for the first time in 4 years. According to the report, the 2023 physician burnout rate is 48.2%, 14.6% lower than the 62.8% reported in 2021.

Physician burnout has been a constant challenge, gaining more attention at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when many physicians were overworked and overburdened by the pandemic's challenges. Since then, seemingly endless research and initiatives have focused on reducing clinician burnout.

Namely, the American Medical Association (AMA) has led efforts to reduce physician burnout, which includes the following:

• Working with the Federation of State Medical boards to remove stigmatized questions that may deter physicians from seeking care for burnout and other mental health challenges
• Partnering to make statewide changes to health systems that improve physician burnout
• Advocating for new laws and policies to protect physicians seeking care for burnout
• Working to implement and reauthorize the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act
• Supporting state physician health programs

Based on data from the AMA Organizational Biopsy, physician burnout as rates have declined. According to the news release, 12,400 physicians across 31 states and 81 health systems participated in the survey between January and December 2023. Respondents were asked to reflect on job satisfaction, job stress, burnout, intent to leave an organization, feeling valued by their organization, and time spent on work-related activities weekly.  

Only 48.2% of respondents reported one or more symptoms of burnout, which is less than the 53% who reported symptoms of burnout in the 2022 survey.

“Overall, this signals that reported levels of burnout from this group of respondents is less than it was last year,” said Nancy Nankivil, director of organizational well-being at the AMA, in the news release.

Additionally, job satisfaction among physicians rose to 72.1% in 2023 compared to 68.0% in 2022. Job stress dropped to 50.7% in 2023 from 55.6% in 2022, and 50.4% of physicians expressed feeling valued in 2023 compared to 46.3% in 2022.

“It is critical for executive leaders to maintain a commitment to organizational well-being,” said Nankivil. “We cannot improve what we are not measuring, so assessing system drivers of well-being through a validated and consistent tool is important.”