Rheumatologists may have a tough time in the office, but they know how to enjoy themselves once the workday ends, according to Medscape’s 2020 Lifestyle, Happiness, & Burnout Report.
In the Medscape survey, less than one-quarter of rheumatologists reported being happy at work, the same as internal medicine, with only neurologists reporting worse at-work happiness rates. While all measured specialties were happier outside of work than at work, no specialty had more of a gap than rheumatologists, rising from 22% at work to 60% outside of work.
The rate of burnout in rheumatologists was slightly higher than that seen in physicians overall (45% vs. 41%), with 78% of rheumatologists reporting that the growing number of bureaucratic tasks contributed most to burnout, followed by increased time devoted to EHRs (43%) and spending too much time at work (40%).
Rheumatologists most commonly dealt with burnout through exercise (46%), isolating themselves from others (45%), and talking with family/friends (44%). Rheumatologists were about average when it came to taking vacation, with 47% taking 3-4 weeks off of work, compared with 44% of all physicians; only 29% took less than 3 weeks’ vacation.
More than 90% of rheumatologists reported that they’d never contemplated suicide, with only 6% reported that they’d thought about it and none reporting that they’d attempted suicide. Similarly, 79% of rheumatologists reported that they are not and do not plan to seek professional help for symptoms of burnout and/or depression, with 10% saying they were currently seeing professional help and 8% saying they had been to therapy but were not anymore.
The Medscape survey was conducted from June 25 to Sept. 19, 2019, and involved 15,181 physicians.