News: Doctors experiencing empathy fatigue, virtual primary care visits to surpass in-person visits within five years

More than 200 providers say they're experiencing "empathy fatigue" for COVID-19 patients who refused to get the vaccine, according to a survey from Wheel. An additional 58% said that the stress of practicing over the past years have caused them to lose passion for their careers and 57% said they’ve considered leaving their job. Clinicians also expressed frustration battling COVID-19 misinformation, with 84% addressing COVID or vaccine misinformation at least weekly, and 43% addressing it daily.

“The challenge of combating misinformation is made more difficult for clinicians as 65% believe patients have less trust in medical advice since the pandemic. Only 15% believe patients have more trust in medical advice,” the survey states.

While 27% of respondents felt staffing shortages were the biggest threat to patient care, the majority (40%) felt the biggest threat was their own burnout. One in three clinicians in the survey also believe burnout is the biggest threat to healthcare organizations.

Clinicians nevertheless appear optimistic about the future of virtual care. Sixty-four percent of respondents said treating patients in virtual-only or hybrid care settings best fits their lifestyle. Additionally, 58% of clinicians believe there will eventually be a greater volume of virtual visits for primary care needs than in-person visits. Most clinicians (63%) in the survey think virtual care visits will surpass in-person within the next five years, and 33% say this will occur within the next 10 years.

Editor’s note: The Wheel published survey can be found here.