We hear a lot about burnout in healthcare these days. To start a conversation about physician and clinician burnout, I like to think back to what the term means from a mechanical perspective: the reduction of a fuel or substance to zero and/or the failure of an electrical device or component due to overheating. You’re either out of gas or you’ve worked so hard as to blow a circuit and shut down – or both.

Staffing, access, and burnout are like four-letter words in most healthcare settings these days. There aren’t enough people to perform the tasks needed to keep patients flowing through the system or enough providers entering the industry to keep up with the demand resulting in limited access for patients in need of care.