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Wellness and Life Balance for Sports Medicine Physicians: Recognizing Physician Burnout.

The American Medical Association estimates the cost of physician burnout in the United States at 4.6 billion dollars annually (1). As sports medicine physicians, we have either trained in or evolved into the concept of the “triple aim,” which are as follows: 1) improved patient care and satisfaction, 2) lower costs, and 3) better outcomes. Late to the party is the concept of “physician satisfaction.” It is past time to address wellness and burnout in medicine and sports medicine, to understand the prevalence of burnout in our profession, to develop strategies that reduce physician suicide, and to support the “joy of practice.”Wellness and life balance should be a “no brainer” for those trained to care for people, but it does not come naturally to hard driving professionals willing to put others above themselves at all times. The stress of physician life is real, and life balance is essential for physician success. Our profession has moved away from the every other and every third night call schedules that ruled resident life during physician training in my era. Good patient care demands alert minds to solve problems quickly and accurately. As with everything in life, physicians exist under a bell curve and outliers on time spent working often rise to high positions within our management systems. Our local newspaper highlighted the new CEO at a major area medical system; a physician who works 22 hours per day (2). That leaves 2 hours per day for personal hygiene, sleep, and family interactions. This seems typical of medical organization CEOs and medical school deans; also, it sets an expectation that the rest of us should be equally energetic and sleepless. The philosophy of “leaders leaving loudly” is difficult to endorse when leaders never leave. Family, exercise, sleep, nutrition, and time away are essential to navigating demands on time and executing plans to reduce stress. It is essential for physicians to make time for family and self, within the context of a well-balanced career.