Abstract
Over the span of their career, physicians experience changes to their professional role and professional identity. The process of continual adaptation in their work setting incurs losses. These losses can be ambiguous, cumulative, and may require grieving. Grief in the workplace is unsanctioned, and may contribute to physicians’ experience of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, low sense of achievement). Acknowledging loss, validating grief, and being prescient in dealing with physician burnout is essential.
- burnout
- professional
- occupational medicine
- occupational diseases
- grief
- cognitive dissonance
- workplace
- electronic health record
- systems theory
- disenfranchised grief
- physician burnout
- complicated grief
Footnotes
Conflicts of interest: Dr Lathrop has spoken on the topic of physician burnout and the intersection of business systems and occupational research through Independent Physicians, SC.
Prior Presentations: Presented in part at Professional Longevity - Beyond Resilience conference, Madison, Wisconsin, April 21, 2016.
- Received for publication June 24, 2016.
- Revision received December 6, 2016.
- Accepted for publication December 23, 2016.
- © 2017 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.
