Provided by the American Medical Association (AMA)
Meredith Faggen, MD, has heard the statistics about increased burnout among physicians, and she understands why some doctors have an even higher prevalence than others.
"There's just a feeling inside that we don't belong, that we're not good enough," said Dr. Faggen, community medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. "Being an LGBTQ physician, I've come a long way. I've been in practice for over 20 years, and it's better now. But we have to try twice as hard to feel like we are as good as everybody else”—the purportedly “normal physicians."
Dr. Faggen, a member of the AMA Advisory Committee on LGBTQ Issues, said that earlier in her career, she missed a chance to become a partner in a physician private practice because she didn't work enough months in the year due to her maternity leave. She talked about that experience and how those types of scenarios affect burnout as part of a recent episode of “AMA Update.”