Hospice-Palliative Care Doctors and Burnout (Research, Video 5:48)

Every profession has the potential for burnout, even when workers love what they do. With the growth in hospice-palliative medicine (HPM), more research is shining a light on how doctors in this field prevent burnout and promote self-care among themselves.

This research by the Mayo Clinic was reported in the Journal of Palliative Medicine. Participants included 40 HPM doctors practicing in America. These doctors were surveyed online about burnout prevention strategies and ways to find fulfillment in their professions. These were strategies used by 30 of 40 HPM physicians (19 males, 11 females) for burnout prevention:

1)    Physical well-being (60%)

2)    Professional relationships (57%)

3)    Transcendental perspectives (43%)

4)    Oral communication with others (43%)

5)    Hobbies (40%)

6)    Clinical variety (37%)

7)    Personal relationships (37%)

8)    Personal boundaries (37%)

9)    Time away from work (27%)

10)  Passion for one's work (20%)

11)  Realistic expectations (13%)

12)  Humor and laughter (13%)

13)  Memories of patients (10%)

HPM doctors use a variety of strategies to avoid burnout and maintain resilience. This research highlights the importance of dealing with burnout as it relates to doctors’ self-awareness and self-care. More research is needed to help physicians recognize burnout and individualized strategies for supporting themselves and their colleagues. This video titled “Palliative Curriculum - Part 15 - Cancer Doctors and Burnout” presents a scenario about burnout concerns.

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many online and offline booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble online stores.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Barriers and Benefits of End-of-Life Discussions with Doctors (Video 1:56 mins.)

Unless we are sure we will never experience physical death, we should all take advantage of preparing for the inevitable long before illness even comes. Not having productive discussions about end-of-life options hinders opportunities to make informed choices, including the choice of hospice care. However, patients’ reluctance to discuss end-of-life options is not the only barrier to their receiving hospice care. As this research shows, doctors can play an important role in delaying hospice discussions that provide benefits to patients and their families:

In a two-year experiment involving interviews with 215 elderly, terminally ill patients, Yale University Medical School researchers determined that factors most strongly associated with hospice discussions were clinicians' estimate of and certainty about patient life expectancy. Unfortunately, clinicians were unable to anticipate the deaths of a considerable portion of patients (40%). Results concluded that, ultimately, “patients' use of hospice, relies largely on clinician estimates of patient life expectancy and the predictability of disease course.” This is another reason why patients should finalize their end-of-life care wishes in writing well in advance. You can read more here about this research on determining hospice discussion.

What are benefits of having end-of life discussions with doctors? This video, which refers to a study at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, shows how these conversations with doctors promote dignified death journeys that help patients and their families.

Frances Shani Parker, Author
"Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes”
“Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog”