burnout, professional

Importance Occupational distress among physicians is a highly prevalent problem that limits the effectiveness of the health care delivery system. While system change is necessary, individual physicians must also consider personal actions to mitigate occupational distress.

Objective To identify physician actions associated with large-effect-size improvements in burnout and/or professional fulfillment over a 6-month interval.

Design, Setting, and Participants This qualitative study using a mixed-methods approach recruited US physicians from the American Medical Association Physician Data file. The study used 2 quantitative online surveys that were administered 6 months apart (October 2 to November 13, 2024, and April 2 to May 16, 2025) to identify physicians with large-effect-size (≥0.8 SD) improvement in burnout and/or professional fulfillment. These physicians were subsequently recruited to participate in a qualitative study using structured interviews to identify changes they believed contributed to this improvement.

Main Outcomes and Measures Burnout and professional fulfillment were assessed using the Stanford Professional Fulfillment Index.

Results A total of 359 practicing physicians responded to both the baseline and follow-up surveys, among whom 87 (24.3%) had an effect size improvement of 0.8 SD or greater in burnout and/or professional fulfillment and were invited to participate in qualitative interviews. Thirty physicians (20 participants [66.7%] aged 30-49 years and 10 [33.3%] aged ≥50 years; 22 [73.3%] female) completed interviews. Thematically, these physicians reported changes in 4 categories: active (ie, intentional) work changes, passive work changes, active personal changes, and passive personal changes. A majority of participants (26 [86.7%]) reported active work and/or personal changes. Active work changes included changes to workload and work schedule, developing new skills or changing the focus of work, changing job or position, taking on or giving up a leadership position, improving efficiency, and advocating for personal needs. Active personal changes included deliberate changes in mindset, contemplative practices, taking time away, working with a therapist or coach, and prioritizing self-care. Passive work changes occurred independent of action by the individual physician and included new leadership, staffing changes, system-initiated workflow changes, and advances in technology. Passive personal changes were infrequently reported.

Conclusions and Relevance Physicians with large improvements in burnout and professional fulfillment reported specific actions at work or in their personal life that they believed led to this improvement. These findings suggest that both individual- and system-level changes may be necessary to optimize occupational well-being among physicians.

Author/s:

Tait D. Shanafelt, MD, Maryam S. Makowski, PhD, Brook Hale, et al.

Use of Ambient AI Scribes to Reduce Administrative Burden and Professional Burnout

Megan George — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 14:10:20 +0000

Date Added:

November 4, 2025

Journal/Publication:

JAMA Network Open

Publication Date:

October 2, 2025

URL:

Use of Ambient AI Scribes to Reduce Administrative Burden and Professional Burnout

Type:

Practice Management Reviews and Guidelines

Format:

Article

DOI (1):

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.34976

Keywords

burnout

burnout, professional

ambulatory care

ambient AI

PMID (1):

41037268

MeSH

Adult

Ambulatory Care

Burnout

Professional* / prevention & control

Professional* / psychology

Documentation* / methods

Electronic Health Records*

It looks like ambient AI is the way to go, for now at least. James W. Mold, MD, MPH

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Importance: While in short supply and high demand, ambulatory care clinicians spend more time on administrative tasks and documentation in the electronic health record than on direct patient care, which has been associated with burnout, intention to leave, and reduced quality of care.

Objective: To examine whether ambient AI scribes are associated with reducing clinician administrative burden and burnout.

Design, setting, and participants: This quality improvement study used preintervention and 30-day postintervention surveys to evaluate the use of the same ambient AI platform for clinical note documentation among ambulatory care physicians and advanced practice practitioners of 6 academic and community-based health care systems across the US. Clinicians were recruited by the health systems' digital health leaders; participation was voluntary. The study was conducted between February 1 and October 31, 2024.

Exposure: Use of an ambient AI scribe for 30 days.

Main outcomes and measures: The primary outcome was change in self-reported burnout, estimated using hierarchical logistic regression. Secondary outcomes of burnout evaluated were changes in note-related cognitive task load, focused attention on patients, patient understandability of notes, ability to add patients to the clinic schedule if urgently needed, and time spent documenting after hours. Outcome measures were linearly transformed to 10-point scales to ease interpretation and comparison. Differences between preintervention and postintervention scores were determined using paired t tests.

Results: Of the 451 clinicians enrolled, 272 completed the preintervention and postintervention surveys (60.3% completion rate), and 263 with direct patient care in ambulatory clinics (mean [SD] years in practice, 15.1 [9.3]; 141 female [53.6%]) were included in the analysis. The sample included 131 primary care practitioners (49.7%), 232 attending physicians (88.2%), and 168 academic faculty (63.9%). After 30 days with the ambient AI scribe, the proportion of participants experiencing burnout decreased significantly from 51.9% to 38.8% (odds ratio, 0.26; 95% CI, 0.13-0.54). On 10-point scales, the ambient AI scribe was associated with significant improvements in secondary outcomes of burnout (mean [SE] difference, 0.47 [0.12] points), note-related cognitive task load (mean [SE] difference, 2.64 [0.13] points), ability to provide undivided attention (mean [SE] difference, 2.05 [0.18] points), patient understandability of their care plans from reading the notes (mean [SE] difference, -0.44 [0.17] points), ability to add patients to the clinic schedule if urgently needed (mean [SE] difference, 0.51 [0.24] points), and time spent documenting after hours (mean [SE] difference, 0.90 [0.19] hours).

Conclusions and relevance: This multicenter quality improvement study found that use of an ambient AI scribe platform was associated with a significant reduction in burnout, cognitive task load, and time spent documenting, as well as the perception that it could improve patient access to care and increase attention on patient concerns in an ambulatory environment. These findings suggest that AI may help reduce administrative burdens for clinicians and allow more time for meaningful work and professional well-being.

Author/s:

Kristine D. Olson, Daniella Meeker, Matt Troup

Motivational Interviewing and Field Instruction: The FRAMES model

Jeffrey Wilson — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 16:38:36 +0000

Date Added:

November 19, 2018

Journal/Publication:

Field Educator

Publisher:

Simmons School of Social Work

Publication Date:

April 1, 2012

Issue:

Volume:

URL:

Motivational Interviewing and Field Instruction: The FRAMES model

Type:

Clinical Decision Aids

Format:

Article

Keywords

motivational interviewing

motivation

burnout, professional

MeSH

burnout, professional

motivation

motivational interviewing

alcoholism

FRAMES is a brief intervention technique found to be effective with patients with unhealthy alcohol use.

Free full text

Motivational interviewing is defined as a “client-centered, directive method for enhancing intrinsic motivation to change by exploring and resolving ambivalence” (Miller & Rollnick, 2002). In supervision of staff, the ultimate goal is to improve an organization’s efficiency by increasing productivity, decreasing employee stress, vicarious trauma and burnout, and reducing clinical negligence and malpractice. In supervision of interns, the major focus is on meeting the intern’s learning needs and on developing competent practitioners. Motivational interviewing in supervision maximizes focus and positive change by developing action plans and addressing ambivalence toward change. Motivational interviewing uses a guide toward change called FRAMES; the acronym stands for Feedback, Responsibility, Advice, Menu Options, Empathy and Self-Efficacy.

Author/s:

Kamya, Hugo