Vacations Are Necessary Medicine for Doctors: Study

Over half of physicians surveyed took 15 or fewer days of vacation in the past year, and most reported working while on vacation.

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What’s the key to preventing burnout at work? For professionals in the medical field, taking a vacation could be the key.

A new cross-sectional study published in JAMA Network Open indicates that doctor burnout can be prevented or reduced by supporting physician vacation time and reducing patient-care-related tasks during vacation time. In other words, when a doctor is on vacation, they need to be fully on vacation.

“Occupational burnout among physicians is a serious threat to patient and physician well-being and health system goals and has been associated with higher rates of medical errors, longer hospital stays, greater mortality rates, lower rates of patient satisfaction, reduction in work hours, turnover, excess health care costs, and physical and mental health issues for physicians,” the research team wrote.

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In a survey of 3,024 U.S. physicians, almost 60 percent of respondents said they took 15 or fewer vacation days in the past year. Roughly 40 percent took six to 15 days of vacation, and just under 20 percent said they took five days or fewer.

Of the physicians who went on vacation, about 70 percent reported working while on vacation, with 33 percent working 30 minutes or more on a typical vacation day. Just under half of physicians reported having full electronic health record inbox coverage while they were away, meaning the other half were responsible for checking their inboxes.

Vacation Availability Varied by Specialty

According to the survey, vacation availability varied by a physician’s specialty. Anesthesiologists and doctors in pathology had the highest proportion of vacations lasting three weeks or longer. In contrast, physicians practicing family medicine and rehabilitation, internal medicine, and emergency medicine had the lowest percentage of vacations lasting that amount of time.

How much time physicians could unplug during vacation also varied by specialty. Doctors in emergency medicine, radiology, and pathology spent the least amount of time on work-related tasks while on vacation, while those in urology, neurology, and surgery spent the most amount of time on work-related tasks during vacation.

Why Is Taking a Vacation So Hard?

The survey was conducted between Nov. 20, 2020, and March 23, 2021. This time frame coincides with the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which put a historic strain on the U.S. medical system. Many hospitals reported critical staffing shortages throughout the pandemic, especially when case levels were critically high. The fallout of the pandemic is still felt today. For example, during the omicron surge between January and February of 2022, hospitals reported seven-day averages of critical staffing shortages that peaked at 22 percent, according to a May 2022 report from the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.

According to the survey, staff shortages meant that over one-third of physicians reported that finding someone to cover clinical responsibilities was a barrier to taking vacation. Other barriers included financial impacts and the volume of work waiting upon a physician’s return; in other words, time off wasn’t worth what would be waiting for them when they came back.

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After all, evidence shows physicians continue to experience chronic work overload, as the study notes.

“Physicians work more hours per week than the general US working population, with the typical full-time physician working 54 hours per week, averaging 10 hours more than other US workers each week,” the team wrote. These longer hours are often associated with higher rates of burnout and more significant impacts on physicians’ physical health, including higher rates of heart disease and stroke, according to the study.

In an effort to reduce burnout, the U.S. government has poured over $1 billion into funding programs like the National Health Service Corps to train more physicians and nurses to help deal with the continued shortage of quality health care professionals.