In a disturbing but consistent trend, women physicians continue to be more likely to experience symptoms of burnout, feel less valued at work and have lower job satisfaction than their male counterparts, even while they’re less likely to say they intend to leave their current positions, exclusive AMA survey data shows.
More than 12,400 responses from physicians across 31 states were received from 81 health systems and organizations who participated in the AMA Organizational Biopsy® last year. The AMA National Comparison Report—which is exclusive data to the AMA that is not published anywhere else—reflects 2023 trends in six key performance indicators—job satisfaction, job stress, burnout, intent to leave an organization, feeling valued by an organization and total hours spent per week on work-related activities (known as “time spend”).
The purpose of the aggregated data is to provide a national summary of organizational well-being and to serve as a comparison for other health care organizations. The results may be limited by the health systems that chose to participate.
For 2023, 48.2% of physicians reported experiencing at least one symptom of burnout, down from 53% in 2022. But women physicians were more likely to suffer from symptoms of burnout—at 54.5%—compared to 42% of men.
Women physicians are also less likely to feel valued, at 45.8%, compared to 56.3% of men who felt valued. Meanwhile, 71.7% of women physicians felt satisfied with their jobs compared with 73.9% of their male colleagues. But 33.2% of women physicians said they intended to leave their current roles, compared to 35.9% of men.
All the figures—for both women and men—improved at least slightly according to exclusive AMA survey data in 2022, but the gender gap remained steady.
As the leader in physician well-being, the AMA is reducing physician burnout by removing administrative burdens and providing real-world solutions to help doctors rediscover the Joy in Medicine™.
There are complex issues
Mary Pan, MD, is a family physician and chief wellness officer at Washington Permanente Medical Group in greater Seattle, where they’re tackling the multifaceted reasons behind the differences in how often women physicians experience burnout, which research shows is linked to work overload.
Washington Permanente Medical Group is a member of the AMA Health System Program, which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine.
“We know there are complex issues that contribute to burnout among women clinicians. We also know that there are some issues that specifically affect women more that relate to burnout,” Dr. Pan said. “We spend more time with patients and more time in the electronic health record. We have a more difficult time decompressing from work, and we receive more inbox messages than our male counterparts.
“So, the combination of these factors, we think, likely exacerbates the gap between men and women physicians in rates of burnout and work sustainability,” she added.
Here are some ways Washington Permanente Medical Group is working to reduce the gender gap in physician burnout.
Take steps to reduce “pajama time”
Dr. Pan said efforts to support physicians must consider the unique circumstances they face, particularly by those who are historically marginalized.
“As we're thinking about building out our overall strategy and programs to address health care worker well-being in general, taking into account the unique challenges that certain groups have—including women clinicians—is really important to address this issue in an inclusive way,” Dr. Pan said.
She said their research shows no significant difference between women and men clinicians in their organization when it came to “pajama time” or “work outside of work” and the EHR side of the profession. But their survey data showed 59.3% of female physicians reported an intent to reduce their hours, much higher than the 34.4% of male physicians who said they planned to do so.
Of the top three things that could help keep them at their current hours, “No. 1 for both groups was staffing,” Dr. Pan said. “But No. 2 for female physicians was less work outside of work, and No. 3 was less documentation. “So, although reported rates for work outside of work and documentation were similar for men and women, our data suggests the impact of these issues on women clinicians is more significant.”
The standard of care in physician well-being recognition
Institutions in this article have been honored by the Joy in Medicine™ Health System Recognition Program.
Provide coaching opportunities
Washington Permanente Medical Group is currently in its third cohort of a women’s leadership coaching pilot program. Each cohort includes 10 to 12 physicians and other health professionals over a six-month period. They identified participants both through nominations and self-nominations, offering six one-on-one coaching sessions, three group coaching sessions, a 360-degree peer review and access to a coaching platform with additional resources.
In the medical group, a senior women leadership group also holds quarterly dinner gatherings and “a re-imagining of a group called Yin of Medicine, which is specifically to support our women,” Dr. Pan said. These are efforts that “give women a chance to mentor and sponsor each other and learn from the wisdom of other women leaders in the organization.”
“When you have a chance to build each other up and have that opportunity for your own professional development, and to be mentored and mentor or sponsor others who you see potential in, it can make a big difference,” she said.
Recent AMA burnout assessments at Washington Permanente Medical Group showed the targeted efforts are bearing fruit. They saw not just overall improvement in well-being scores, from 58.1% to 62.6%, but also a significant narrowing of the gap between men and women clinicians, Dr. Pan said, from a 4.6% gap in 2022 to a .9% gap in 2023.
“The positive response and self-assessments really suggest that this evidence-based intervention is helping our women clinicians, in particular,” Dr. Pan said. “We're just now looking at how we can continue to scale these offerings, potentially offering group coaching and targeted supports for emerging women leaders.”
Discover how the Washington Permanente Medical Group fights burnout by seeing each decision through a well-being lens.
