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Author: Oksana Babenko, Assistant Professor, Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Alberta
Working in the medical field is demanding and, correspondingly, the public has become increasingly aware of the toll on doctors, including burnout. Research shows that there are both heavy personal and systemic financial costs due to doctor burnout, which costs more than $200 million each year in Canada.
Occupational burnout is a psychological state of exhaustion, disengagement and inefficacy that emerges from the prolonged exposure to work-related stressors. Physician burnout, along with its personal and professional consequences, may in fact originate in medical school.