3 lessons about burnout radiologists can learn from the U.S. Marine Corps

A reality for today’s imaging leaders is that many radiologists experience burnout on the job and need help coping with such feelings in order to provide patients with the very best care possible. According to a new opinion piece published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology, radiologists should look to the U.S. Marine Corps to better understand burnout and learn how to successfully manage it.

“Although in medicine, work-related stress is a relatively new topic of study, other fields have studied it for many years, and their experiences and insights can help illuminate the stress of radiologists,” wrote lead author Richard B. Gunderman, MD, PhD, department of radiology at Indiana University in Indianapolis, and colleagues. “At the forefront of such organizations is the U.S. Marine Corps.”

In the Marine Corps, the authors explained, “the understanding of work-related stress evolved considerably during the 20th century.” These are three valuable lessons radiologists can learn from that evolution:

1. Don’t ignore the problem.

“Stigmatizing the difficulty associated with work-related stress does no one a service,” Gunderman and colleagues wrote. “If anything, it tends to drive it underground, allowing its adverse effects to build up to a breaking point, which can have adverse and even catastrophic consequences both for individual radiologists and their colleagues and families.”

The Marine Corps, the authors explained, emphasize that leadership is expected to “create an experience in which work-related stress is recognized, mitigated and treated.” With that in mind, radiology educators must teach trainees about a radiologist’s work life. This helps radiologists learn about what will be expected of them and it improves the chances of strategies being developed that can relieve the stress that accompanies working long, often uninterrupted hours in a reading room.

2. Leaders should work to improve avoidable sources of stress.

“The Marine Corps condemns the view that its service members could ever be regarded as ‘fire and forget’ weapons, a lesson that should not be lost on radiologists,” the authors wrote. With this in mind, imaging leaders must show that they care about their radiologists by working to reduce sources of stress that can be avoided.

If employees have to deal with a poorly developed IT system, for example, this can lead to increased feelings of burnout. Leaders should recognize this and quickly work to have that system improved.

Of course, the authors added, some sources of stress are simply inevitable.

3. Don’t punish employees for sharing their struggle.

Another key way leaders can reduce burnout in radiology is by making it crystal clear that admitting such feelings does not result in being punished.

“A radiology department or group should not tolerate a culture in which members feel compelled to destroy themselves in order to keep up or make themselves sick in order to heal others,” the authors wrote. “In some cases, colleagues need to be encouraged to take more regular breaks or use more of their paid time off.”

Other times, Gunderman et al. added, helping the employee may mean taking larger steps such as “reducing isolation and loneliness.”