Provider Happiness Has Taken a Beating Since the Pandemic; Check in with Colleagues (and Yourself)

As JUCM News readers know, research has shown that healthcare provider burnout increased significantly over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. New research published by Medscape, which also took part in the project, took a slightly alternate approach to the issue by asking 9,100 providers in 29 specialties not only about burnout, but also to assess their degree of happiness. While urgent care was not one of those specialties, it’s noteworthy that the specialties most analogous to urgent care—internal medicine, family medicine, emergency medicine, and pediatrics—all fell in the ranking of “most happy” settings. Pediatrics fell from second to 12^th; internal medicine from 15^th to 20^th; family medicine from 10^th to 21^st, and emergency medicine from fourth to 23^rd. How do you think your colleagues would assess their degree of happiness these days? And how would you assess your own? The answer matters not only to your abilities to treat patients but also, obviously, in the context of your own quality of life. JUCM has published numerous article relating to burnout and provider wellbeing. You can read The Covid-19 Pandemic Is Making Burnout Worse for Physicians Already In Crisis and Provider Burnout Is Real; Show Compassion for Yourself in our archive right now.