News: 57.6% of PCPs faced burnout in 2022, report shows

Though burnout levels have decreased significantly since the pandemic, healthcare professionals still face “high levels of burnout,” according to a new study.

Published in JAMA Network Open, the six-year study was conducted at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) from 2018 to 2023. During those years, the researchers evaluated a cohort ranging from 123,271 healthcare professionals in 2018 to 169,448 in 2023.

According to the study, annual burnout rates by year were:

• 2018: 30.4%
• 2019: 31.3%
• 2020: 30.9%
• 2021: 35.4%
• 2022: 39.8%
• 2023: 35.4%

The researchers also examined to what extent “high professional stress” was due to COVID-19. For instance, they noted, “The trend for high professional stress was significant in all comparisons between years with the highest rate in 2020 when the pandemic was declared (32.0%), followed by a decline (26.9%) in 2021, a small increase (29.2%) in 2022, and then a notable decrease (21.4%) after the pandemic.”

Primary care physicians reported the highest levels of burnout when compared with other services lines, clocking in at 46.2% in 2018 to 57.6% in 2022.

Despite the high levels overall, the authors concluded that by addressing professional stress and burnout institutionally, health systems can help contribute to the overall well-being of healthcare professionals.

“The VHA experience and the data we report herein suggest that such improvements are possible,” the authors concluded. “Toward these ends, we believe there is great value for health care workers and health care systems in documenting changes in burnout rates and studying the influence of proactive organizational efforts.

Editor’s note: To read the JAMA study, click here.