Practicing at the Top of Their License Problematic for Thousands of Healthcare Professionals Experiencing Burnout

Another American Pharmacists Month is in the books and the profession dubbed “the medication experts” has found itself asking alongside millions of healthcare professionals, “Is this what I went to school for?”

Editor at LinkedIn News Beth Kutscher reports pharmacists had the highest number of job transitions between 2019 and 2021.

COVID exposed what many healthcare professionals have been feeling for years as declining autonomy and authority to practice compounds at the expense of the professional's own health and well-being.

Our schedules are maxed out.  Our patients are getting worse… and we are struggling too.

Expert in trauma-informed care, Dr. Dr. Helen (Heleen) Sairany 🧠🩺 discussed the potential for post-traumatic stress disorder in frontline pandemic workers in her recent interview on the Healing Medicine Show, “I think burnout is equivalent to trauma.  It gets to a point where you develop a scar (on your nervous system) that is irreversible.”

The symptoms of ‘burnout’ are directly related to unrealistic job expectations and overworking which are most commonly reported as chronic fatigue and despondence around work performance in general.

The pandemic may have been the catalyst, but the origins of career dissatisfaction in healthcare started long before 2020.

In order to escape a profit margin pre-determined by the insurance companies, healthcare professionals who have been pushed to “the point of no return” as Dr. Sairany calls it are walking away from conventional practice.

Dr. Christy Arthur a Life Coach and Family Physician in Roanoke, Virginia is moving her practice to direct primary care and limiting her total patient load to 700 persons in order to provide a more personalized care approach.

A 2012 article in the Annals of Family Medicine noted that the average primary-care physician has about 2,300 patients on their "panel"— that is, the total under their care.

Similarly, these low provider-to-patient ratios can be seen from pharmacy practice settings to ICU nurses and everywhere in between.

This pivot reflects what many healthcare professionals are embracing as the 'future of medicine,' a focus on individual, personalized care.

Where did all the HCPs go?

Many healthcare professionals are leaving traditional employment in favor of non-traditional paths like entrepreneurship and part-time consulting. 

Companies in the health tech industry like Aspen RxHealth are reimagining care models that allow pharmacy consultants to provide comprehensive medication management services for patients in a convenient, patient-centric environment.

Professionals are saying they 'need space to remember' why they went into healthcare.

A report by Oberlo shows the rate of new business applications is trending upward in line with the job transitions report.

Can entrepreneurship solve the burnout problem in healthcare?

The ease of small business creation plus the market opportunity to provide healthcare consulting services for individuals has made entrepreneurship a growing area of interest for many healthcare professionals seeking personal and professional alignment.

A professional limited liability (PLLC) company is a legal vehicle that allows a healthcare professional to act as a small business owner providing specialized, oftentimes outside-of-the-box care like functional medicine, pharmacogenomic testing, and health coaching to name a few.

Healthcare consultants may choose not to accept insurance or may work directly with employers to provide packages focused on a specific result or focus.

Traditional billing and reimbursement models for proactive management of chronic conditions related to stress, poor diet, and lack of movement are lacking.

Innovative professionals are creating service offerings similar to the VA’s Whole Health Model that integrate holistic approaches with conventional practice.

There is growing evidence the healthcare system may be reaching a sustainability tipping point as providers of care are feeling stripped of their autonomy and authority.

Consulting provides healthcare professionals the opportunity to step into a career that is more in alignment with who they are, and experience more pleasure and purpose in their work. Some discover themselves through entrepreneurship and creating innovative, personalized solutions.

We end each Healing Medicine Newsletter with a journaling or meditation prompt that will help you to examine and reinvent yourself as a healthcare professional.

Today’s prompt is:

How are you prioritizing your own health and healing? Which holistic practices are you integrating into your practice of traditional medicine?