In this episode we’re looking for answers to the question of “why are we seeing less medical school students than ever?” The obvious downstream effect of fewer medical school students is that there will be fewer residents and fewer physicians. Compounding the issue of fewer new physicians is the fact that physicians are retiring earlier than ever!
We looked at data that The Physicians Foundation published in their 2023 Survey of America’s Current and Future Physicians to see what we can do, as an industry, to stem the tide. You can view the report here: https://physiciansfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/PF23_Brochure-Report_Americas-Physicians_V2b-1-2.pdf
Click to expand and read this episode's transcript.
Erik Sunset: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome back. I’m Erik Sunset your host of the DocBuddy journal here at DocBuddy. We deliver healthcare solutions that take the pain and costs that are broken workflows. A perfect example of this is our Op Note solution, which gives ASCs. The power of instantly generated opera for reports approved from the point of care and learn more about op note and our full suite of solutions at docbuddy.com. Thank you for once again, joining us. Before we get into the meat of the show today.
I want to let everybody in the Gulf region. No, that if you’re attending the Gulf states, Ambulatory surgery center event happening in just two short weeks and beautiful Blocks Mississippi at the Resort and casino. You can meet DocBuddy at booth number 28. Again, that’s the Gulf states ASC annual conference, June 11th through June 13th in Blocks. Meet DocBuddy at booth number 28. [00:01:00] And the focus of today’s episode continues down the path that we’ve been on for the last couple of shows, talking about physician burnout. We want to go a little bit deeper though.
We want to look at med student burnout and some of the factors. that we’re not seeing the throughput from medical student to resident to practicing physician. Got a really good dataset from the physicians foundation are going to be looking at their 2023 survey Americas, current and future physicians. And I’m on a little bit of a search for answers.
What can we do to fix the lack of physicians in this country? Uh, we know that they’re retiring earlier than expected in droves. We know kids are less interested in medical school than ever. And what exactly. Do we need to do what exactly can be done to fix this current shortage of physicians that we have.
Um, and you’ve heard me say in no [00:02:00] uncertain terms, we’re on the brink of a cataclysm of an outright lack of physicians. It’s not just a shortage. You. Over the next five years until we hit 2030.
We know that burnout plays a big factor in why physicians are retiring early, leaving medicine, moving into nonclinical non-patient facing roles. And according to the physicians foundation data, this is now the third year in a row, six and 10 physicians often have feelings of burnout compared to four in 10 before the pandemic, it goes back to 2018. Like their physician colleagues, six and 10 residents often have feelings of burnout. And now seven and 10 medical students report often having feelings of burnout. These stats really aren’t that much of a surprise.
We know that a lack of autonomy, a lack of staff and the use of legacy [00:03:00] software solutions really drive that physician burnout. But medical students, aren’t physicians. They aren’t working. There are medical school. So what’s going on.
Well, the physician foundation reports that medical student’s overall wellbeing is lower than both residents and physicians. Three quarters of medical students have felt inappropriate feelings of anger, tearfulness, and anxiety. Much more compared to residents and physicians more than half of medical students have felt hopeless or that they have no purpose. Greater compared to residents and physicians. Additionally current and future physicians like report stigma and structural barriers negatively affect their overall wellbeing and mental health. And continuing down this line, nearly eight and 10 physicians, residents and medical students agree that there is stigma surrounding mental health and seeking mental health care among physicians. Nearly five and 10 of these residents and medical [00:04:00] students were either afraid or knew another colleague fearful of seeking mental health care.
Given questions asked in medical licensure, credentialing and insurance applications. And we know that this is the case. Uh, not only because of the physician, foundation’s great dataset, but what we’ve looked at from Medscape, from the class arch collaborative. And various other sources. But we might be on the brink of finding a solution and finding an answer here about least what could be done to stave off the shortage of physicians. Because it appears a generational shifts happening where medical students are seeking mental health care and talking about it. With peers in classes.
The sentiment shift is happening across a broad base of physicians and healthcare workers as well.
Those actually in their career, as opposed to just students. And in our last episode, we even addressed that. Talking about your issues does seem to help, even if it’s not addressing the root [00:05:00] cause of the problem. Medical students really are leading the charge here. Nearly half of medical students have sought medical attention. For a mental health problem. That’s substantially higher than the proportion of residents and physicians. To really address. Some of our root causes here. It seems that current and future physicians need systems and workplaces to prioritize physician wellbeing and their related perspectives. In this positions, foundations study and survey, it lists out the top ways residents and students think organizations can support physicians in the workplace and they are in order. Removing low value work, including reducing EHR clicks and minimizing inbox notifications. Being encouraged to take paid, leave, sick leave and rest breaks. Giving physicians, more flexibility and autonomy to adjust quality and patient experience goals. Eliminating unnecessary, mandatory [00:06:00] training requirements. And eliminating insurance approvals such as pre-authorization. And wouldn’t that be nice. So those are the that’s the top third of the list of suggestions. And if we boil this down to the very most actionable items for healthcare organizations, early revolved around three things. Eliminating unnecessary trainings.
That’s a very low hanging fruit for a healthcare organization. How you determine what’s unnecessary or not? That’s up for you to decide. Improving staffing levels. Much easier said than done, but in the rest of these 15 items that med school students say would help improve, uh, physician sentiments around burnout and workplace satisfaction. If you are able to improve staffing levels, you’re going to enable providers to practice at the top of their degree or top of their license.
And one of these really low hanging fruits is that we’ll remove. Low value work in the [00:07:00] EHR. And, you know, that’s something that DocBuddy takes very seriously. As a matter of fact, that’s one of our founding principles that physicians are spending two thirds of their time away from patients. Um, that is very much not practicing at the top of your license. And obviously there are huge macroeconomic factors that exist around improving staffing levels.
Um, and this is there’s two problems on the sport. Cause what I’m trying to say. Both being able to make the right hire, train them and integrate this new employee into your organization, but also to retain. An existing employees. Uh, there’s no more costly, higher. You have to make then that somebody who has just quit.
And then seemingly interestingly, the third, most actionable category that healthcare organizations can act on right now is around culture. And in these list of 15 ideas, that medical stools, medical school students, [00:08:00] they would be the most helpful. Making access to mental health assessments is at the top of the list. I also included are normalizing conversations about mental health. Improving the culture of taking vacations and sick leave. And then both in a workflow process in culture sense, physician autonomy. This is universal across all of these studies and all of these findings that a lack of physician autonomy is a tremendous driver of burnout.
And that’s a cultural factor that you as a healthcare organization. Uh, can make a change for immediately. We actually had a great podcast with Todd courier. He’s the CEO of bend surgery center out there in bend Oregon. About all of the ways that culture can drive excellence at his ASC or the ways. Let me rephrase that the way that culture does drive excellence at his ASC. Um, you can find that episode at, uh, wherever you are listening to this podcast.
[00:09:00]
And to put a bow on it.
This is rather short episode for this week. Wanted to give you a little bite-sized snack as you head into your weekend. Obviously you were recording this on Friday, May 31st. All of the findings from this physician foundation study align with what we’ve seen in other datasets, like the affirmation class, arch collaborative Medscape, and others. You can visit DocBuddy.com/blog to find all of our episodes on the surveys or wherever you’re listening to this podcast. The question remains will the industry at large, and this is talking about. The healthcare organizations like hospitals, health systems, large groups. Well, the industry at large answer the call to improve medical student throughput and physician retention. Through the full length of their careers. Or are we going to stick to the status quo where we’re going to see the ready access to physicians? Continue to degrade. Time will [00:10:00] tell. On behalf of the entire dock buddy team.
I want to thank you for listening. Be sure you’re subscribed on apple podcast, Spotify and YouTube. So you can always hear and watch the newest episodes of the DocBuddy journal. And until next time, I’m your host, Erik sunset. We’ll talk to you again soon.