“The Creative Destruction of Physician Burnout”: Dike Drummond MD, CEO and Founder of TheHappyMD.com

Numerous global studies involving nearly every medical and surgical specialty indicate that approximately 1 in 3 doctors are experiencing physician burnout at any given time with some studies showing physician burnout prevalence as high as 60%.

To be a doctor is a privilege, an honor, a calling requiring each of doctors to devote a minimum of 7 years and often hundreds of thousands of dollars just to step up to the starting line of their practice. Doctors’ health and happiness is the foundation of their ability to care, to heal and to alleviate suffering.

The burnout rate of 1 in 3 is not normal. It is inexcusable. It is a symptom of deep unconsciousness within the modern system of training doctors and the modern healthcare system.

“Each of us knows what it feels like to be burned out, toast, fried and spent after a long weekend of call or a tough night in the hospital. If you are able to recover your drive and energy before you return to work, great job. I hope your resilience continues.” says Dike Drummond MD, CEO and Founder of TheHappyMD.com.

What is physician burnout?

“The difference between stress and physician burnout is the ability to recover in your time off. Physician burnout begins when you are NOT able to recharge your batteries between call nights or days in the office. You begin a downward spiral that has three distinct symptoms,” explains Drummond.

1) Physical and emotional exhaustion:

“You are emotionally drained, depleted and worn out by work and not able to recover in your non-working hours. This is the most common symptom of burnout by far. When burnout prevalence surveys identify the percentage of physicians suffering from “at least one symptom of burnout” – this is the most common burnout symptom,” he says.

2) De-personalization:

“The development of a negative, callous and cynical attitude toward patients and their concerns. The cardinal sign here is cynicism, sarcasm and feeling put upon by your patients.”

3) Reduced sense of personal accomplishment:

“The tendency to see your work negatively, without value or meaningless (“what’s the use?”) and see ourselves as incompetent. Another piece of internal dialog at this stage is, “I’m afraid if something doesn’t change, I am going to make a mistake and someone is going to get hurt,” continues his explanation Drummond.

The standardized questionnaire measuring these three scales of physician burnout is called the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Christina Maslach herself describes the experience of burnout using the language below. Note she was not talking about doctors at the time of this quote.” … an erosion of the soul caused by a deterioration of one’s values, dignity, spirit and will.”

The Burnout <—> Engagement Continuum

Physician burnout can be thought of as one extreme of a continuum with physician engagement on its other end.

“The feelings associated with full engagement in your career are ones of fulfillment and satisfaction. You feel your work makes a positive difference in people’s lives and your career has true meaning. Engagement is the emotional gold standard for career success and at the opposite end of the continuum with physician burnout,” says Drummond.

“The “most stressful” professions are characterized as having a high level of responsibility and little control over the outcome. The practice of Medicine certainly fits that description and is consistently on the short list of professions with the highest inherent stress levels. This is a tough job that saps our energy every single day,” continues Drummond.

“We work with sick people all day long (duh!)”

“Our days are filled with intense encounters with sick, scared or hurting people … with all the emotional needs that come with an illness. This naturally draining environment is compounded by our typical lack of training on how to create and maintain boundaries with our patients,” says Drummond.

“Medicine has a powerful tendency to become the “career that ate my brain”, pushing all other life priorities to the side. Our training reinforces our innate workaholic tendencies. As we get older, with more family responsibilities, the tension between work and our larger life is a major stressor for many. Lack of training in how to create and maintain boundaries – this time between work and life – is a part of this perfect recipe for physician burnout,” says Drummond.

Dike Drummond MD is a Mayo trained Family Practice Physician and the leading coach, trainer and consultant on:

– The prevention of burnout in individual physicians

– The realization of the Quadruple Aim in healthcare organizations.

Dike graduated from the Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minnesota in 1984 and completed his Family Practice Residency at the Shasta Cascade Program in Redding, California in 1987. He served as an Emergency Room Physician at Redbud Community Hospital in Clearlake, California for a full year after residency. Dr. Drummond practiced full spectrum Family Medicine for 11 years as a member of the Skagit Valley Medical Center in Mount Vernon, Washington.

Dr. Drummond suffered from career ending burnout and left his medical career in 1999 to become an Entrepreneur beginning with his Interactive Guided Imagery Practice. He is certified as a Life and Business coach with extensive experience in personal and business development and both off and online marketing working with startup entrepreneurs and physicians. He is certified as a Life and Business coach with extensive experience in personal and business development and both off and online marketing working with startup entrepreneurs and physicians.

Now, Dr. Drummond is the CEO and Founder of TheHappyMD.com where the website receives 25,000 website visitors a month and hosts an online community of over 18,000 physicians from 63 countries around the world.

Dr. Drummond has over 3000 hours of one-on-one physician coaching experience and has trained over 40,000 doctors on behalf of 175 corporate clients to date. His comprehensive experience with individual doctors in all specialties and healthcare organizations of all sizes has lead him to create the ground breaking resources listed below.

Dr. Drummond is the creator of:

The Burnout Prevention MATRIX Report containing over 235 ways to prevent physician burnout.

The book: Stop Physician Burnout – what to do when working harder isn’t working. With over 40,000 copies in print it has become the reference text to burnout prevention for the modern physician.

The Quadruple Aim Physician Leadership Retreat – teaching physician leaders a comprehensive skill set to hard wire the Quadruple Aim into their personal lives, the culture of their teams and the entire organization. 167 Physician Wellness Champions graduated to date.

The Quadruple Aim Blueprint – a four-part strategy for system-wide burnout prevention.

An Outsourced Physician Coaching Service – offering physician burnout coaching to doctors in client organizations supplied by the certified staff of physician coaches at TheHappyMD.com.

One Minute Mindfulness – a research proven single breath mindfulness technique specifically developed for practicing physicians.

The Ideal Physician Job Search Formula – online job search training for physicians actively searching for a new position.

The Burnout Proof Online Workshop Video Training Library – complete your medical education and learn how to recognize and prevent burnout in yourself and others.

BurnoutProofMD 3-Layer Physician Support Ecosystem combines a private web support site, the top 5 online trainings and 2 hours of weekly group coaching (and over 100 CME credits/year). You can start your 30 Day Free Trial Now.

“Since 2010, we have been helping physicians, leaders and organizations Stop Physician Burnout with proven tools, training and support based on our real world experience,” says Drummond.

“This is not about the research – we know and use the latest research findings. It is about helping doctors and medical organizations change their culture and take better care of the doctors and staff. This is life-saving work for both patients and physicians.”

Here’s what doctors are saying about the results of their training on the recovery burnout program proposed by Dr. Dike Drummond and TheHappyMD.com:

“I was feeling exhausted, hating my job, the patients, and the commitment it took to do my specialty. It seemed like I had done so much work (education, residency) for nothing, as I hated all of it. There were many things that I had never said out loud until I spoke to Dike. Everyone else in my life had an opinion that was not helping. Having someone to speak to who only had my success and happiness as the goal was both delightful and enlightening.

So much has changed. Now I work a little less and spend more special time with my husband and children. I have learned to let go of all the politics at work and to release my thoughts about patients when I come home. We even made a change in coverage so I now get to sleep through the night every day of the week. I feel much less anxious and am enjoying my practice and my time outside of work again.

I’m surprised at how much I cried, which is not my typical style, and most of all, I am surprised at how quickly I felt better after so many years of feeling so sad. ~ M.B. MD

“My professional and personal lives were stagnant, stressful. I felt depressed, hopeless, and helpless. I needed someone to help me.

Dike was really creative, insightful, intelligent, and held me accountable. He gave me new perspectives and pointed out some distorted thoughts that no one had ever challenged me on. I realized I don’t need to change jobs to achieve contentment. I need to first identify what I really want and then make the adjustments to get there. I felt heard and understood. I also never considered that a medical diagnosis I carried for so long could be potentially wrong. It was nice for someone not to label me. Coaching helped me navigate some touchy situations at work and at home.  I even learned some skills to make meetings more productive.” — A. D. MD

“I hired Dike as a coach to help me deal with the stress of work and burnout. I felt overwhelmed by too many patients, not enough time, and too much work on call.

Dike is a physician, so he always had the right words and techniques to alleviate my suffering. I learned to re-energize myself, prioritize my own goals and needs. He showed me tools to reset my mind during work and how to replace stressful thoughts with good ones. How to relieve stress throughout my work day and how to make time for my wife and family when I thought I had none to spare.

I was surprised how simple things could make my day a lot better, like gratitude before the work day and Dike’s squeegee breath technique. — M. L. MD

“Dike pushed me to ask for what I really wanted out of my practice. I learned how to negotiate with my group to take back my career and make it enjoyable once again. Now I enjoy my medical practice like I did when I started at this group over 20 years ago. I can take off my “Doctor Hat” when I get home, forget about work and give my devoted attention to my family.” – T. R. MD

TheHappyMD.com invites doctors and organizations to connect them to discuss the situation in detail so they can learn how they can collaborate on everything from a high-impact training for their people — to a complete organizational strategy to stop physician burnout system-wide.

By Alex Arlander | ENC News