Let's Work Together to Ban Physician Burnout in Your Practice

Physician burnout is no different from burnout with any staff member. 

People become tired and frustrated when their jobs become overly routine, they sense a lack of control and a lack of support. Whether the worker is a physician, an hourly laborer or a high flying executive, the drivers to burnout are pretty much the same. 

The Gallup Organization has studied this for decades, and I advocate the Q12® Survey as part of an overall burnout assessment and prescription development process to make your organization a leader in physician satisfaction, engagement, stability and production. 

These area the 12 questions Gallup uses to asses 

• Do you know what is expected of you at work?
  
• Do you have the materials and equipment you need to do your work right?
  
• At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?
  
• In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?
  
• Does your supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?
  
• Is there someone at work who encourages your development?
  
• At work, do your opinions seem to count?
  
• Does the mission/purpose of your company make you feel your job is important?
  
• Are your associates (fellow employees) committed to doing quality work?
  
• Do you have a best friend at work?
  
• In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?
  
• In the last year, have you had opportunities at work to learn and grow?
  

The natural next set of questions delves more deeply into the how and why of the above and becomes both behaviorally, via the Birkman®Assessment, and functionally focused. 

When you combine this data; however, you are armed with information to help you create a highly positive and rewarding work place for physicians. And positive and rewarding workplaces produce superior results. 

®The Q12 Survey is the property of The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ.
®Birkman is the trademark of Birkman International, Houston, TX