We Did It! The AMA Solved Burnout!

Huge news out of the American Medical Association this week: resident physician burnout is down to 28.6%! 

Of course, not long ago, the AMA was reporting that 50% of residents were experiencing burnout, but now thanks to this new AMA-exclusive survey and data analysis, the burnout rate has been cut in half in just 2 years!

This means that only about 1 in every 4 residents that you’re signing out to at the end of the day is quietly unraveling and deeply reconsidering their life choices, rather than every other one. 

But it gets better: 90% of residents report being satisfied with their training program! Because nothing says satisfaction like 60-80+ hour workweeks, close to minimum wage pay, and a once-a-year pizza party on Thank a Resident Day. Who cares that you had to miss your sister’s wedding?

Of course, it’s important to note that burnout itself is a bit of a slippery term. Is the AMA referring to emotional exhaustion? Incredibly high amounts of stress? A creeping sense that your entire life and personality have been flattened into a healthcare machine governed by an EMR and increasingly demanding patients and attendings? Hard to say. But whatever it is, fewer residents are reporting it, so it must be gone!

And in fairness, many things have changed over the past few years. There have been meaningful, structural changes and interventions, such as increased awareness, AI wellness modules, and a deep focus on resident autonomy. And who can forget the rapid expansion of post-COVID, for-profit healthcare systems, such as notorious good guys and the largest healthcare system in the US, HCA (whose very own VP of academic affairs for GME is quoted in the AMA’s article and is a frequent contributor to AMA’s Resident Wellness topics). Surely as part of HCA’s aggressive goals of bringing down the resident burnout percentage even further, residents can expect a significant portion of their recent $1.62 Billion in Q1 profits to be invested directly into more AI to create more surveys to address resident burnout. 

Because if there’s one thing we know about burnout, it’s that the solution lies not in reducing workload, restructuring incentives, increasing pay and mobility, or redistributing power, but in attempting to rebrand it through yearly surveys. 

And the AMA is not alone in its astonishing findings. The Hippocratic Collective also sent out a survey to 10,000 residents and fellows with just one statement and asked them to respond with “agree”, “strongly agree”, or “abstain but please tell my program director I chose strongly agree so I don’t get in trouble.”

“Residency is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and if given the choice, I would remain a resident indefinitely, even without pay, because the pride of being a resident sustains me on a spiritual level unknowable to all non-residents.”

9,970 respondents selected “abstain” (our researchers have concluded that they were most likely confused about why a survey about burnout was even needed since it’s already been solved), and 30 selected “strongly agree.” A 100% satisfaction rate! 

So yes, huge news. Burnout is down. Satisfaction is up. The surveys are working.

And the residents?

They’re doing better on paper than ever before.