Record rate of U.S. physicians feel exhausted in Omicron wave: study

© 由 XINHUA 提供

Medical workers carry a patient to a hospital in New York, the United States, Dec. 13, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

NEW YORK, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Over 60 percent of U.S. physicians reported manifestation of burnout during the Omicron wave in the winter of 2021-2022, which was an all-time high rate, according to a new research.

Published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, a U.S.-based monthly peer-reviewed medical journal, the study conducted between Dec. 9, 2021 and Jan. 24, 2022 found that nearly 63 percent of physicians had at least one manifestation of burnout in 2021, compared with 38.2 percent in 2020.

It also found that satisfaction with work-life integration dropped from 46.1 percent in 2020 to 30.2 percent in 2021. Meanwhile, average depression scores rose from 49.5 percent in 2020 to 52.5 percent in 2021.

The study, co-worked by researchers from the American Medical Association, the Mayo Clinic, the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of Colorado School of Medicine, surveyed nearly 2,500 physicians in the United States.  ■