News: Two factors critical to reduce family physician burnout, survey says

Family physicians are among the top three specialties in medicine experiencing burnout this year, according to a survey conducted by Medscape Medical News. Recently, researchers examined what is driving family physician burnout and found that decreasing time spent at home on electronic health record (EHR) tasks and building stronger nurse-physician teams were associated with lower odds of burnout, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.

Between 2017 and 2023, the JAMA study surveyed 10,315 physicians as part of the American Board of Family Medicine’s Continuous Certification Questionnaire, with more than 75% practicing in an urban/suburban setting and 13.5% in a rural setting, Medscape Medical News reported. Almost 58% were employees, 11.3% owned their practices, and 3.2% were contractors.

The results showed a lower odds ratio (OR) of burnout associated with physicians’ perceptions that EHR use at home was appropriate, along with physician collaboration with a registered nurse. Interestingly, collaboration with a physician assistant was associated with greater odds of appropriate home EHR time.

“This study advances our understanding that addressing physician burnout is not about more EHR training and not specifically about moving to paying for value,” wrote Christine A. Sinsky, MD, vice president of professional satisfaction with the American Medical Association, in an editorial about the study. “Rather, it is about developing stronger nurse-physician core teams. These are novel and important findings with actionable lessons for physician and health system leaders.”

Editor’s note: To read Medscape Medical News’ coverage of this story, click here. To read the JAMA Network Open study, click here.