A survey of junior West Australian doctors has revealed a concerning increase in the risk of moderate-to-high burnout among younger medical professionals, while more than half reported a lack of training opportunities in the industry.
The Australian Medical Association WA released the findings from its annual Hospital Health Check survey on Tuesday, with 56 per cent of respondents reporting moderate to high burnout – a 4 per cent increase from the previous year.
AMA WA president Dr Kyle Hoath said the increased reporting of burnout was alarming.
“It’s raised from where it was last year, which is alarming to us,” he said
“We know that this is going to be a tough winter, and if we’re facing that with less doctors, because we’re burning them out in their day-to-day duties, it’s unacceptable.”
“Probably for the first time ever, we are seeing doctors leave the profession early to pursue other careers because it’s too hard, because of the burden placed on them, because of the risk of burnout, because of the work that they’re exposed to with insufficient support, meaning that they are looking elsewhere.”
One-in-three doctors surveyed reported a fear of negative consequences in speaking up or reporting adverse behaviours, 40 per cent felt applying for training had affected their wellbeing, while job security, adequate support for parental leave and flexible or part-time arrangements were also highlighted as key concerns
AMA WA vice president Dr Natalie Ferrington described the atmosphere for junior doctors in the industry as grim.
“The feeling on the ground is definitely aligned to the feelings of the hospital health check, which is that burnout has increased overall,” she said.
“We see it on the ground where departments just don’t have the medical staff, and these are junior doctors that are working overnight trying to review patients.
“I see it time and time again, patients ending up in the intensive care or having poorer outcomes because we just don’t have the staff to actually work in the departments in the hospital.”
More than 1300 junior doctors completed the survey which aimed to measure levels of morale and culture, burnout, access to leave, adequate teaching and training, as well as employment entitlements and rights
Ferrington, a registrar at Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital, said junior doctors wanted to see an increase in the number of places for medical professionals to specialise.
“Unfortunately, the places to pursue a career in cardiology or surgery or most specialties that you or I might think of as medical specialists – it is very competitive,” she said.
“That’s one of the main drivers of people not actually being able to speak up on these key workplace issues.”
Hoath said one of the keys to combating burnout among medical staff is access to leave.
“So there are lots of things that contribute to burnout, and I would say the unsafe working hours, the additional unpaid overtime that junior doctors will very often do, and the inability to access leave reliably contribute to burnout at a particularly challenging part of their life,” he said.
“Often it’s at the same time people are starting families, or at the very least entering perhaps their first ever job, and to be exposed to such amounts of pressure, such amounts of work with insufficient support or time off or breaks, is what contributes to quite a high rate of burnout.”
While Hoath expressed concern over the increased number of junior doctors experiencing burnout, he added that there were several positive outcomes from the latest survey.
A total of 92 per cent of those surveyed reported often or always feeling safe at work, while there was improvement in the reporting of adverse behaviours following sustained advocacy efforts.
“It is positive that we have seen no F-grades for only the second time ever,” he said.
“So we are seeing that the hospitals do listen to the health check and try to address those issues that we are able to highlight.
“Every year, after the hospital health check, we visit every hospital, sit down with their executives, we sit down with the government … and we talk about what we might be able to practically do in the next 12 months to improve things.
“We aren’t there yet, it is something that we need to keep working at.”
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
