Doctors are at high risk of burnout, and GPs are no exception. According to last year’s RACGP health of the nation report, 69% of GPs experienced burnout in 2024—and a 2023 Healthed survey showed that 38% of over 1600 GPs had noticed a drop in their empathy toward patients on a daily or weekly basis.
The ramifications of burnout can be hefty. Previous research has linked it to early retirement, addictive behaviours, deteriorating wellbeing and worsening patient safety – but it doesn’t have to get to this point.
Dr Jo Braid, a physician-turned-coach who specialises in helping medical professionals experiencing burnout, explains what to watch out for and prevention strategies.
Research has identified a handful of common features of burnout.
Exhaustion
This often manifests as emotional exhaustion in healthcare practitioners, Dr Braid says. “You are feeling hollow and empty, and there’s just nothing left in the cup.”
Depersonalisation
This is where someone might wonder if they’re making a difference or positively impacting their patients – and then withdraw or ‘check out’ from their work as a result, Dr Braid explains.
Cynicism
Specifically, a kind of pervasive cynicism where you feel despondent and hopeless in the scenario.
Uncontrolled stress
“Burnout is also defined as sort of uncontrolled stress for an extended period of time. It’s not just a little bit of acute stress, it’s very chronic and uncontrolled,” Dr Braid adds.
Signs of burnout:
GPs may not have burnout on their radar when they assess patients or consider their own situation, and may think it’s depression. But if a standard depression scale doesn’t match the symptoms, then consider burnout, Dr Braid says.
“There is a simple differentiating question – ‘is it pervasive?’” she adds.
If the symptoms are pervasive across all domains of someone’s life, it’s more likely to be depression, whereas if it’s more work-place related, it’s more likely to be burnout.
Dr Braid has been through burnout herself, and recalls that even though she was at her wits end professionally, she still enjoyed her family and social life, so she knew she wasn’t depressed.
That said, there is definitely some overlap of symptoms of burnout, anxiety and depression—and burnout is a risk factor for developing depression or anxiety disorders, Dr Braid notes.
Dr Braid says there are three main risk factors for burnout:
The workplace itself
There are six known workplace risk factors for burnout, Dr Braid says. These are:
Lifestyle
A lack of work/life balance, a lack of close social connections and poor sleep are lifestyle risk factors.
Personality type
People with a type A personality, who are high achieving perfectionists are at higher risk. People pleasing may also be a risk factor, Dr Braid adds. “People who say yes to everybody else and say no to themselves,” may be more likely to burnout, and the same goes for people who are so outward-facing that they don’t stop to check in on themselves.
A burnout assessment tool can help predict the likelihood of burnout.
Dr. Tait Shanafelt’s research found that doctors spending less than 20% of their work time doing meaningful activities have a greater than 50% risk of burnout.
So the first thing to do is work out what is meaningful to you, Dr Braid says, noting that this will help make work feel more rewarding. She recommends jotting down some activities that you find meaningful at work, and consider how much of your work day you spend doing them. If it doesn’t work out to at least 20% of your work time, can you shift things around?
Noticing and labelling your emotions or feelings can also help.
“Wellbeing is linked to having a wider vocabulary of emotions that we notice. So instead of being mad, sad, or glad, we might use something like a feelings wheel or another resource is the How We Feel app,” Dr Braid says.
Once you get past the ‘crisis point’ it can help to work on things like self-awareness, relaxation techniques to lower cortisol levels such as box breathing and mindfulness, she says.
Dr Braid uses a CBT based model, but also asks open ended ‘why’ type questions to help people re-evaluate, for example, why they say ‘yes’ to all requests or why they aren’t setting boundaries.
One simple boundary she suggests is moving to a different room at lunchtime without your laptop or phone. This gives you time away from the endless emails and a valuable chance to reset.
“Connect with another human,” she says. “They don’t have to be a problem solver, just someone to debrief or vent to can be helpful.”
Seeking support is incredibly important — as is prioritising sleep and movement. Mindset also makes a difference, she notes.
Taking less notice of other people’s opinions and developing what Dr Braid terms as a ‘so what’ attitude is a step in the right direction.
“It’s not a failure, it’s not a black mark against them,” she says. “But with a growth mindset things can change. Most of us have a tough inner critic and it won’t let us ask for help, but we’re all human and sometimes we need it.”
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