2 minute read
President's Message
Dear colleagues,
As the new academic year swings back into high gear, we have in this issue of Worcester Medicine a review and dissection of a phenomenon which is an indirect threat to the public’s health: burnout within the healthcare workforce. Doctors, like many healthcare people, have always worked hard and had trouble maintaining what is now known as work-life balance. But this is a curiously modern affliction in medical personnel - curious because we live and work in a time when access to knowledge and specialized consultation and physicians’ ability to treat injury and illness successfully have never been greater. Yet the problem seems to worsen as our skills, tools and technical resources improve. Perhaps it devolves from the stress of constant monitoring and a zero defects quality of care culture imposed on physicians as much as developed and accepted by them. Perhaps it is due to shifting societal expectations around child rearing, prestige or income, or even customer service. Perhaps it results from a larger proportion of physicians being employed rather than working for themselves so that it feels their practices are not theirs and not within their control. Likely the increasing amounts of non-medical bureaucratic work to ensure their patients get the tests, procedures, and medicines they need play a significant role too. It may be that different issues drive burnout differently in different generations of physicians. In any event, solutions have been elusive. In this issue edited by Dr. Steven Bird we are guided through the topic and an array of interesting potential palliatives which we all hope will help with this problem.
As the fall kicks in, we are finalizing our annual calendar for 2023-2024. We have fantastic keynote speakers lined up and expect you will find our events to be educational and riveting and are excited to see you all in person. +
