Burnout in Women Physicians, 1st ed. 2020 Prevention, Treatment, and Management

This book is the first to dissect the factors contributing to burnout that impact women physicians and seeks to appropriately address these issues. The book begins by establishing the differences in epidemiology between female physicians and their male counterparts, including  rates of burnout, depression and suicide, chosen fields, caregiving responsibilities at home, career tradeoffs in dual physician marriages, patient satisfaction and outcomes, academic rank, leadership positions, salary, and turnover. The second part of the book explores the drivers of physician burnout that disproportionately affect women, each chapter beginning with a case vignette.  This section covers many issues that often go unrecognized including unconscious bias, sexual harassment, gender role conflicts, domestic responsibilities, depression, addiction, financial stress, and the impact related to reproductive health such as pregnancy and breastfeeding.  The book concludes by focusing on strategies to prevent and/or mitigate burnout among individual women physicians across the career lifespan.This section also includes recommendations to change the culture of medicine and the systems that contribute to burnout.

Burnout in Women Physicians is an excellent resource for physicians across all specialties who are concerned with physician wellness and burnout, including students, residents, fellows, and attending physicians.

Section I.  How do women physicians differ from their male counterparts?

1.       Percentage women in medical school classes and fields of medicine and changes over time.

2.       Patient satisfaction and outcomes (patient satisfaction, listening to patients, spending extra time when needed, adherence to clinical guidelines; outcomes such as mortality and readmission rates)

3.       Rates of burnout, depression, suicide, and substance use disorders

4.       Family/marriage responsibilities (reproductive life planning and management, primary caregiver for children or aging parents, career trade-offs in dual physician marriages)

6.       Academic rank

8.       Turnover/years in practice              

II.  Drivers of burnout that disproportionately affect women (each chapter in this section will begin with a vignette and reference the evidence from the literature) 

11.   Role conflict

13.   Lack of mentorship and role models

15.   Hesitance to negotiate salaries, self-promote and set limits

17.   Hormonal fluctuations/menopause/pregnancy/breastfeeding

18. Unconscious bias: increasing awareness, guides and policies

19. Reproductive life planning and management

20. Decreasing stigma associated with mental health treatment

22. Flexible schedules

23. Family leave in medical school and GME programs

24.Support networks, mothers’ support groups, and women supporting other women

26. Professional organizations and advocacy

Cynthia M. Stonnington

Mayo Clinic

Department of Psychiatry & Psychology

Scottsdale

Arizona

USA

Includes case vignettes that illustrate each point

Concludes with solutions to improve prevention, treatment, and outcomes

Written by experts in women’s mental health and physician burnout