Burnout, classified by the World Health Organisation as an "occupational phenomenon" rather than a medical diagnosis, is common across many professions, but physician burnout can have far-reaching societal consequences. A recent national study in India found that burnout is increasingly prevalent among doctors, especially female physicians, those under 30, and doctors spending over 12 hours a day with patients. Published in the Journal of Association of Physicians of India (JAPI), the study identified multiple contributing factors: personal issues (47%), work-related pressures (31%), and patient-related challenges (35%), with about one in four doctors affected by all three simultaneously.
Resident doctors face additional challenges such as poor recognition, substandard living conditions, unhealthy diets, inadequate insurance, and occasional violence from patients’ relatives. Similar…
