The Commonwealth Fund - Stressed out and burned out: The global primary care crisis (17 November 2022)

Summary

A survey conducted by the Commonwealth Fund has found that a majority of primary care doctors in the US and other high-income countries say they are burned out and stressed, and many feel the pandemic has negatively impacted the quality of care they provide. This article presents the survey results in the form of graphs with a commentary, and you can also download data from the survey.

Content

Survey highlights

• Across the 10 high-income countries included in this study, most doctors reported increases in their workload since the beginning of the pandemic.
• Younger doctors (under age 55) were more likely to experience stress, emotional distress, or burnout and, in nearly all countries, were more likely to seek professional help compared to older doctors.
• Doctors who experienced stress, emotional distress, or burnout were more likely to report providing worse quality of care compared to before the pandemic.
• Half or more of older doctors in most countries reported they would stop seeing patients within the next three years, leaving a primary care workforce made up of younger, more stressed, and burned-out doctors.