Burnout in radiology: Imaging leaders must think beyond the reading room

The first image one might picture when they think about the risk of burnout in radiology might be a busy radiologist sitting at his or her desk. The radiologist is exhausted, both physically and mentally, but there’s still a lot of work to do before the end of the day.

According to a recent analysis published in Academic Radiology, however, burnout isn’t just about the workplace—it’s about a radiologist’s life outside of work as well. Authors Richard B. Gunderman MD, PhD, and Morgan N. McLuckey, from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, suggest that radiologists consider the synergy model when thinking about the relationship between fulfillment at work and fulfillment between their life outside of work.

“[The synergy model] suggests that in broad terms, work fulfillment and life fulfillment are positively correlated with each other,” Gunderman and McLuckey wrote. “Someone who is happy at home is, all other things being equal, more likely to be happy at work, and someone who is happy at work is, all other things being equal, more likely to be happy at home.”

If this correlation exists, the authors added, imaging leaders should work harder to “provide colleagues with work experiences that do not undermine and perhaps even enhance life satisfaction.” Keeping their employees happier at home, in theory, should keep them happier when they are on the clock as well.

The authors also explained the importance of “relatedness.” Co-workers who don’t communicate with one another about personal matters may end up contributing to a negative experience at the workplace. Relatedness is also connected to feeling “understood and appreciated” by one’s co-workers. “People who do not know and appreciate one another cannot develop a very deep relationship,” Gunderman and McLuckey wrote.

Imaging leaders can promote relatedness by encouraging co-workers to communicate with one another—and by helping their employees enjoy their personal lives as much as possible by, for example, providing a fair amount of paid time off.

“Efforts to reduce burnout and enhance morale among radiologists are unlikely to be successful if they attend only to the domain of the workplace,” Gunderman and McLuckey concluded. “Radiologists experiencing discouragement need to examine both spheres of life and how they interact. Radiology leaders need to recognize that workplace conditions that undermine the quality of radiologists' personal lives are likely to damage morale and camaraderie.”