Lack of autonomy is one of the main reasons clinicians leave the field – MedCity News

Patient safety and lack of autonomy are two of the main reasons so many clinicians leave the medical field, according to a new study. report published by EY.

Amid the crisis of clinical burnout, healthcare workers have spoken frankly about their moral injury, which refers to the feeling of knowing that they are unable to provide patients with the quality of care they need and deserve due to labor constraints and of resources. Clinicians’ concerns about patient safety are a major factor in them leaving the field, and it is something that has been widely covered by the media and is well known in the healthcare sector, noted Aloha McBride, global healthcare leader at EY, in an interview. A less discussed topic, however, are clinicians’ grievances about their lack of control when it comes to making decisions about their patients’ care plans.

For its report, EY conducted more than 100 interviews with front-line clinicians and health system leaders between March and June. Respondents came from nine different countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, England, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Norway, Sweden and the United States.

Among the clinicians we interviewed, it was very clear that this notion of lack of autonomy was huge for them. Forty-two percent of them said this would be the main reason they would abandon health care altogether. They do not feel like their judgment is respected, nor their ability to make good decisions with their patients regarding their care. They said this lack of autonomy inhibits their ability to provide safe and healthy care to their patients, McBride said.

Clinicians often feel like they need to tailor their patients’ care plans to fit health system policies instead of simply creating a plan based on what’s best for the patient and their health, she said. she explains.

For example, sometimes a health system is unable to meet a patient’s needs because of their insurance coverage or geographic location. In these situations, clinicians are forced to modify the patient’s care plan so that it aligns with the rules in the health system.

[Clinicians] are in some way prescribed a course of care that may or may not work for their patient. And a lot of times, they end up having to call other facilities and figure out how they can meet that patient’s care needs, McBride said.

Clinicians also feel like they don’t have the freedom to spend enough time with their patients, she added. Most clinicians surveyed by EY said that even when they have administrative tasks taken off their plate, it doesn’t allow them to spend more time with their patients, just to see more patients.

Many of these clinicians said their health system wanted them to see as many patients as possible, McBride noted. When a health system prioritizes the number of patient visits, it often means clinicians have incredibly short time frames, often five to 10 minutes, to meet with patients and hear their concerns, she explained .

The hospital executives say: Okay, great, you have more time, so we’ll add more patients to your list today. So it’s like a vicious circlenever get the time back to allocate it appropriately to these patients, McBride said.

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