Researchers identify interventions for physician burnout

Editor's Note

In this meta-analysis, Mayo Clinic researchers identify solutions that are being used to prevent or lessen physician burnout.

Effective individual-focused strategies include mindfulness training, stress management training, and small group sessions.

Organizational changes include limiting physician duty hours and a range of care delivery process changes in hospitals and clinics. 

The literature indicates that both individual-focused and structural or organisational strategies can result in clinically meaningful reductions in burnout among physicians. Further research is needed to establish which interventions are most effective in specific populations, as well as how individual and organisational solutions might be combined to deliver even greater improvements in physician wellbeing than those achieved with individual solutions.