An exploration of sociological factors that contribute to physician burnout

Abstract

A discussion about mental health and how it relates to the medical profession is incomplete without exploring the concept of burnout.  The implications of physician burnout are profound, and it is plaguing the medical community at epidemic rates.  Current research focuses on which occupational factors may be contributing to this problem.  Other approaches involve investigating the efficacy of building resilience at the individual level as a means of combatting burnout.  Examining this issue through a broader lens and considering sociocultural factors that may be influencing how medicine is experienced by those in the field is remarkably untouched in the literature.  This article will discuss how several changes in contemporary Canadian society may be underlying factors in physician burnout. The increasing penetrance of the internet into patient-physician interactions, the rise of online review platforms and widespread secularization in a domain that continues to face issues that evidence-based medicine fails to explain will all be addressed.  This is merely a preliminary discussion to fortify current initiatives aimed at promoting awareness of and preventing physician burnout.