Combating Physician Burnout: A Guide for Psychiatrists

By any metric, burnout is a pressing issue in medicine generally and psychiatry
specifically-particularly because of its potential impacts on patient
care.

Combating Physician Burnout: A Guide for Psychiatrists, the first
book of its kind to focus on the field of psychiatry, aims to educate
psychiatrists about three key concepts: stress, burnout, and physician
impairment. Edited by recognized experts on physician burnout, this volume
features contributions from domestic and international authorities in the field,
including academic and community psychiatrists, those involved in residency and
medical student education, and members of the American Psychiatric Association
Work Group on Psychiatrist Well-being and Burnout.

Five sections lay out
the scope of the challenge and outline potential interventions: The
introduction discusses the history and social context of burnout, providing
psychiatrists struggling through burnout with important perspective. The second
section, "The Continuum of Stress, Burnout, and Impairment" explores the
potential effects of burnout on clinical care and examines depression and
suicide among physicians. Environmental Factors Leading to Burnout" identifies
contextual elements that seem to contribute to burnout, including the electronic
health record and the challenge of balancing professional and personal demands.
The fourth section of the book discusses a range of systemic and individual
interventions, included among them organizational screening for burnout, peer
review and support, and mindfulness training and meditation. The final section,
"Ethics and Burnout," tackles the moral challenge burnout poses to the
profession of psychiatry.

Regardless of career stage, readers will
benefit from the unique psychiatric perspective on burnout-and the practical
advice on combating its effects-offered by this guide.