[DECLASSIFIED] The Mental Health of Healthcare Workers

When you think about healthcare workers and mental health, you might picture a psychologist’s office with a therapy couch. Considering how doctors relate to this aspect of health makes people think of a patient receiving mental health services.

You aren’t as likely to picture doctors themselves needing this kind of help. Yet, healthcare workers often struggle with their mental health. They're constantly dealing with long hours, paperwork, and high-stress emergencies. This also makes them experience burnout at rates higher than most other professions.

Unfortunately, this has negative consequences in both their professional and personal lives. Healthcare professionals lose fulfillment at and away from work and are likely to cut back hours or even leave the field. Even worse, it’s not uncommon that they will experience substance abuse problems. Physicians even have some of the highest rates of suicide.

Take a look at this infographic that declassifies the mental health of healthcare workers.

Conclusion

Even though doctors provide care for our mental health, they often also need it themselves. Working in the medical field causes high rates of burnout among these professionals. 

It’s a stressful job as it is between emergencies and life-saving treatment. Adding in the long hours from handling administrative tasks just makes it worse. Doctors lose fulfillment in their work when they spend less time with patients. And a lack of fulfillment at work leads to depression and mental health struggles at home.

Those who struggle are often reluctant to get help for their mental health since they think they should be providing care, not seeking it. This leads to continued problems including poor coping mechanisms and suicide ideation. 

Resources

• Almost one-third of physicians spend 20+ hours each week on administrative tasks and paperwork - AMA

• They spend almost 50% of their time doing paperwork. But less than 30% of their time is with patients - Etactics

• One-third of doctors need 50% more time with patients, but this would be all the time they currently spend in EHR systems - AHRQ

• For every one hour spent with patients, doctors spend another two hours on administrative work - Etactics

• Experts attribute 10-20% of the physician burnout problem on EHR user experience - Healthcare IT News 

• Others note that poorly designed EHRs cause burnout rates of over 50% - Fierce Healthcare

• Doctors spend 16 minutes per patient encounter within EHR systems - American College of Physicians

• 59% of physicians attribute burnout to bureaucratic tasks, making it the most reported reason for burnout - Medscape

• Spending too many hours at work is the second-most-common reason for burnout, reported by 34% of doctors - Medscape

• Doctors in training who work over 55 hours per week have twice as high a risk for developing mental health problems - AMA

• 26% of physicians work 51-60 hours per week, and another quarter works 60-80 hours. More hours contributes to higher rates of stress, burnout, and depression - Pacific Companies

• The percentage of physician burnout rises with the number of hours they work. 57% of those working over 71 hours experience burnout. This compares to 36% of those who work 31-40 hours - Medscape

• The more hours someone works, the less sleep they get. Of 150,000 healthcare workers, 45% get inadequate sleep (less than 7 hours) - SpringerLink

• One in five doctors plans to reduce their working hours within a year. Driving this move to shorter workdays is the feeling of burnout - Healthcare Dive

• 31% of doctors deal with their mental health struggles by reducing work hours. This is the most common way that they alleviate burnout - Medscape

• Only 29% of doctors feel happy at work - AAFP

• Only around 43% say they feel satisfied with work-life integration - Mayo Clinic

• 35% of physicians feel irritated with their patients - Medscape

• High burnout contributes to feelings of isolation, loss of belonging, and failure - NCBI

• 10% of physicians say that their burnout is so severe that they consider leaving the field - Medscape

• 23% of doctors cope with their mental health struggles by drinking alcohol. 3% cope by smoking nicotine products, and 2% cope with other drugs - Medscape

• 1 in 10 physicians, and 10%-12% of all health professionals, develop a substance use disorder during their careers - Alcohol Rehab Guide

• A 2013 study found that 69% of doctors reported a history of misusing prescription medication to manage stress and pain - PubMed

• Misusing opioids is prevalent among doctors because of easier access to them. More than 100,000 health professionals in the US struggle from abuse and addiction involving narcotics - Addiction Center

• At least 15% of physicians have considered suicide - Medscape 

• 300 to 400 doctors die each year by suicide. The rate of physicians committing suicide is over double the rate of the average American - NPR