Let's stop trying to get a physician wellness committee off the ground and focus on active physician burnout detection, prevention and treatment instead. Let the physicians do what they do best -- and wellness is absolutely not it.

Practicing medicine now, in this day and age, may be another kind of traumatic stress, and one that is new to a younger generation of doctors. Imagine not knowing how you will get financed two years from now and if the government will cut your funding. A lot of us can relate.

How do you talk with a patient who honestly believes antibiotics are the only cure for their crud in a way that honors their misery and does not end up giving inappropriate antibiotics?

Remember the oxygen mask and get your needs taken care of first. Take exquisite care of yourself as the foundation for taking care of others. This is the only way you can be emotionally available for your patients and your family and avoid even deeper levels of burnout.

The insufferable pace of primary care combined with the erosion of the doctor-patient relationship deters young physicians from entering the field. In my graduating class of 30 or so internal medicine trainees, only two of us chose to go into primary care.

This inability to punch the clock and put our doctor-ness away until our next shift is, I think, a major contributor to the epidemic of physician burnout.

Numerous studies have shown that an average of 1 in 3 practicing physicians is suffering from symptomatic burnout on any given office day, worldwide, regardless of specialty.

Nearly half of doctors have at least one sign of burnout, and they are also more likely to be burned out from their work than people in other professi...

Being a doctor is stressful. Continuously caring and being empathetic is an impossible expectation. When doctors are under stress the first thing that goes is the ability to listen and care. Unfortunately, these are also the two most important things to you as the patient.

The current mentality of socialized medicine will usher in a new kind of doctor and usher out many talented, gifted and important physicians who could have made contributions to health care.