Reframing physician engagement: An analysis of physician resilience, grit, and retention

Abstract

ABSTRACTFrom 2011 to 2014, overall physician burnout rates in the United States increased by 10%, with specialty-specific burnout rates ranging from 37% to 61%. Physician turnover creates financial burdens for healthcare organizations, sabotages patient safety, disrupts continuity of patient care, and undermines institutional profitability. Grit has emerged as a more reliable and accurate predictor of retention than intelligence, physical aptitude, personality traits, or job tenure and represents a promising lens for identifying opportunities to strengthen physician engagement and retention and promote the culture of safety requisite to quality healthcare. Innovative institutional, departmental, and leadership initiatives promoting resilience, engagement, and Grit may effectively mitigate social, economic, and cultural factors contributing to physician burnout. This meta-analysis identifies interrelationships between physician engagement, job satisfaction, and burnout as components of resilience and Grit and recommends operational strategies to improve physician retention.