When PTO stands for 'pretend time off': Doctors struggle to take real breaks

What's a typical vacation activity for doctors? Work. A new study finds that most physicians do work on a typical day off. In this essay, a family doctor considers why that is and why it matters.A survey shows that doctors have trouble taking full vacations from their high-stress jobs. Even when they do, they often still do work on their time off.A survey shows that doctors have trouble taking full vacations from their high-stress jobs.

Sinsky and co-authors found that physicians who took more than three weeks of vacation a year had lower rates of burnout than those who took less, since She's the American Medical Association's vice president of professional satisfaction. If she can't take a real vacation, is there any hope for the rest of us?

"You end up putting people in kind of a sticky situation, asking for favors, and they need to pay it back," saysShe says her practice has a"doctor of the day" who covers all urgent calls and messages, which helps reduce some of the guilt she feels about taking time off. "Sometimes I wish I had vacation in the middle of two really emotionally challenging rotations like an ICU rotation and an oncology rotation," she says, referring to the intensive care unit."We don't really get to control our schedules at this point in our careers."

But West says it's important to weigh the financial benefits of skipping vacation against the risk of burnout from working too much.

Source: Holiday News (holidaynews.net)

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