Nearly half of physicians surveyed say they’re burned out in 2024

Nearly half of physicians report experiencing burnout in 2024, according to Medscape’s 2024 physician burnout and depression report. The 49% burnout rate is a reduction from last year, when 53% of physicians reported burnout. However, this year’s rate is significantly higher than it was before the pandemic—44% of surveyed physicians reported burnout in 2019.

To create the report, Medscape surveyed over 9,200 physicians of different ages across 29-plus specialties. Below are some highlights from the report.

• The specialties with the highest rates of burnout include emergency medicine (63%), OB-GYN (53%), oncology (53%), pediatrics (51%) and family medicine (51%).
• The specialties reporting the lowest rates of burnout include plastic surgery (37%), ophthalmology (39%), psychiatry (39%), pathology (41%) and otolaryngology (43%).
• The things contributing most to physicians’ burnout, respondents noted, include bureaucratic tasks such as charting and paperwork (62%), too many hours at work (41%) and lack of respect from employers, colleagues or staff (40%).
• Physicians were most likely to report deploying the following coping mechanisms to deal with burnout: exercise (52%), talking with family and friends (49%), getting more sleep (41%), spending time alone (39%) and playing or listening to music (37%).
• The workplace measures physicians say would most alleviate burnout include increased compensation (48%), adding support staff (47%) and more flexible work schedules (46%).

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