From what I can tell, burnout in the medical field is primarily a symptom of too much work given to too few people. I'm not sure how it can resolve without an increase in the medical labor force.
The economics of the shift from productive labour (goods) to service industry is 50+ years deep and we're still afraid to talk openly about work, value, value adding, and hours.
Health economics is complicated. The primary barrier to more health professionals in most economies is government funding followed by restrictive practices in the industry certifying new entrants, not that the certification per se is wrong, it's the controls on rate of certification outcome which are the problem: doctors don't want dilution of income. The hours suck but the money is good.
They definitely need to work less, especially junior doctors and registrars in hospital. The hours are dangerously insane, life threatening for doctor and patient alike and it's no different in nursing: there's a reason nurses go locum and supply over contracted and it's bound up in stupid health economics.
(Not in medicine, I read this. Happy if people in the field correct me)
It feels a bit like the medical profession is simultaneously restricting access to care from other groups (nurse practictioners etc.) while decrying their workload. Im not qualified to know who is right here but the market is strangely inelastic and I cant help but feel that cui bono would be quite the rabbit hole to go down.
Absolutely this. The Australian GPs body bitterly opposed nurse practitioners, pharmacists giving flu and covid vaccines, midwives in some states for example.
Health economics is complicated. The primary barrier to more health professionals in most economies is government funding followed by restrictive practices in the industry certifying new entrants, not that the certification per se is wrong, it's the controls on rate of certification outcome which are the problem: doctors don't want dilution of income. The hours suck but the money is good.
They definitely need to work less, especially junior doctors and registrars in hospital. The hours are dangerously insane, life threatening for doctor and patient alike and it's no different in nursing: there's a reason nurses go locum and supply over contracted and it's bound up in stupid health economics.
(Not in medicine, I read this. Happy if people in the field correct me)