Burnout is bad because if affects staff welfare, not because it’s a risk to patients

Weigl discusses the effects of physician burnout on the quality of care provided to patients.1 But focusing solely on patient safety misses the point. Burnout is bad primarily because it affects staff welfare, not because it is a risk to patients. We do not need to justify intervention against this by citing its effect on productivity (through rota gaps and absenteeism) or patient safety.Burnout erodes the NHS workforce and makes working life worse. We spend a vast amount of our lives at work. If a substantial portion of staff is miserable in those hours, that should be enough for us to make major changes to our work environments and training programmes so that we might improve our colleagues’ quality of life.Annual General Medical Council training surveys have established that risk of burnout is increasing among trainees.234 So far, strategies seem focused on nebulous concepts of wellness, wellbeing, and resilience—to which…
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