Policy-level, institutional, and personal interventions, including peer support and electronic health record optimization, offer a pragmatic framework to address obstacles to physician wellness.
What are the obstacles to physician wellness and what interventions can foster sustained well-being?
This review provides a pragmatic framework for addressing physician well-being by identifying key obstacles and proposing multi-level interventions.
Despite a recent surge of interest in physician well-being, the discussion remains diffuse and often scattered. Lingering questions of what wellness entails, how it is personally applicable, and what can be done, remain pervasive. In this review, we focus on policy-level, institutional and personal factors that are both obstacles to wellness and interventions for potential remedy. We outline clear obstacles to physician wellness that include dehumanization in medicine, environments and cultures of negativity, barriers to wellness resources, and the effect of second victim syndrome. This is followed by proven and proposed interventions to support physicians in need and foster cultures of sustained well-being from policy, institutional, and personal levels. These include medical liability and licensure policy, peer support constructs, electronic health record optimization, and personal wellness strategies. Where sufficient data exists, we highlight areas specific to anesthesiology. Overall, we offer a pragmatic framework for addressing this critical concern at every level.
Khan et al. (2020) conducted a review in Physician well-being. Policy-level, institutional, and personal interventions was evaluated. Policy-level, institutional, and personal interventions, including peer support and electronic health record optimization, offer a pragmatic framework to address obstacles to physician wellness.