It is no secret that the job of a medical doctor is among one of the most challenging. Every decision a physician makes has the potential to, quite literally, be a matter of life and death. Despite this relatively common knowledge, the true extent to which these challenges can affect physicians remains widely unrecognized. As the field of medicine rapidly evolves in an effort to improve the health and lives of patients, physicians are subjected to more stressful and exacting work environments, often with little to no support. Thus, due to the difficult demands of modern medicine, a large portion of physicians now suffer from chronic stress, that if not properly addressed can lead to a poor quality of patient-care, the development of mental illness, and above-average suicide rates.
An abundance of stress in any career can lead to an underperformance of workers. But with the lives of patients in their hands, the underperformance of medical doctors can reap much more severe consequences than that …show more content…
The suicide rate of physicians has shown significant growth in recent years to the extent that individuals in this occupation are now statistically more likely to commit suicide than the majority of the public. In the article “Suicide Compared to Other Causes of Mortality in Physicians”, Dr. Dario M. Torre, et al, an internal medicine specialist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine states, “Suicide was the only cause of death where risk was greater than that in the general population with [a standardized mortality rate] of 1.82” (148). This means that in the cohort of medical doctors involved in Dr. Torre’s study, there were 82% more deaths as a result of suicide than in the average populace. Such a number makes it immensely clear that chronic stress and the resulting mental illnesses among physicians are not merely isolated contingencies; they are an
An abundance of stress in any career can lead to an underperformance of workers. But with the lives of patients in their hands, the underperformance of medical doctors can reap much more severe consequences than that …show more content…
The suicide rate of physicians has shown significant growth in recent years to the extent that individuals in this occupation are now statistically more likely to commit suicide than the majority of the public. In the article “Suicide Compared to Other Causes of Mortality in Physicians”, Dr. Dario M. Torre, et al, an internal medicine specialist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine states, “Suicide was the only cause of death where risk was greater than that in the general population with [a standardized mortality rate] of 1.82” (148). This means that in the cohort of medical doctors involved in Dr. Torre’s study, there were 82% more deaths as a result of suicide than in the average populace. Such a number makes it immensely clear that chronic stress and the resulting mental illnesses among physicians are not merely isolated contingencies; they are an