Burnout Down For Women Physicians, Yet Closing Gender Gap Still Key

(AMA, Sara Berg, MS) — Physician burnout in the U.S. continues to trend downward, yet gender inequities persist, according to an exclusive AMA survey. That continuing gap underscores how workload, workplace culture and work-life balance pressures continue to weigh more heavily on women in medicine. But some innovative health systems are working to change that.

Nearly 18,000 responses from physicians across 43 states were received from more than 100 health systems and organizations who participated in the AMA Organizational Biopsy® last year. The AMA national physician comparison report—which is exclusive data to the AMA that is not published anywhere else—reflects 2024 trends on six key performance indicators—job satisfaction, job stress, burnout, intent to leave an organization, feeling valued by an organization and total hours spent per week on work-related activities (known as “time spend”).

The purpose of the aggregated data is to provide a national summary of organizational well-being and to serve as a comparison for other health care organizations. The results represent data from all organizations that surveyed with the AMA in 2024.

As the leader in physician well-being, the AMA is reducing physician burnout by removing administrative burdens and providing real-world solutions to help doctors rediscover the Joy in Medicine®.

For 2024, 43.2% of physicians reported experiencing at least one symptom of burnout, down from 48.2% in 2023 and 53% in 2022. But women physicians were still more likely to suffer from symptoms of burnout—at 47.2%—compared with 38.9% of men. This is a drop from 54.5% of women physicians and 42% of men in 2023.

Women physicians are also less likely to feel valued, at 51.6% compared to 58.2% of men. Meanwhile, 49.9% of women physicians reported feeling a great deal of job stress, compared to 40.2% of their male counterparts.

Additionally, 77.4% of women and men physicians felt satisfied with their jobs, up from 71.7% and 73.9% respectively. But 29.1% of women physicians said they intended to leave their current roles, compared to 32.7% of men.

All the figures—for both women and men—improved at least slightly according to exclusive AMA survey data in 2024, but the gender gap remained steady for most areas.

Explore how the AMA Health System Member Program works with health care leaders to tailor solutions that maximize support for physicians and care teams.

Health systems are making changes

The reduction in burnout rates for women physicians signals a promising trend that highlights the powerful impact of prioritizing well-being. It shows that ongoing efforts and programs that health systems have implemented can help—but the gender gap in physician burnout remains.

These examples from health care organizations that are part of the AMA Health System Member Program—which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine—show commitment to ongoing change to reduce the gender gap in burnout.

  1. Washington Permanente Medical Group is incorporating AI to help

    1. Mary Pan, MD, remembers what it was like tracking patient conditions on paper charts. She also remembers the frustrations she had as the widespread adoption of EHRs led to more challenges for her and her fellow physicians.
    2. As augmented intelligence (AI)—often called artificial intelligence—becomes more commonplace in health care, Dr. Pan is not feeling quite so frustrated. Frankly, she’s excited about how AI is already supporting those in her medical group and its potential to have a lasting impact on physician well-being.
    3. For women physicians within Washington Permanente Medical Group, two of the biggest factors that contributed to burnout were documentation and work outside the office. That is another reason why she’s optimistic about incorporating AI into the workflow.

  2. Privia Health helps physicians in private practice reclaim autonomy

    1. People are driven to choose a career in medicine not only because of their passion for the art and science of healing, but their deep capacity for care. However, the bureaucracy, systematic redundancies and chronic inefficiencies that are commonplace in some practices can interfere with that calling, leading to frustration and burnout, as it did for Nalini Casey, MD, a pediatrician at Privia Health.
    2. After years of wrestling with administrative overload, clinical bottlenecks and practice-level obstacles, she was questioning her future in medicine. Today, thanks to Privia Health, Dr. Casey is thriving there and practicing medicine as determined by her values and standards, and an actively hands-on approach is no longer out of reach.

  3. Sutter Health took these seven steps to improve well-being

    1. After an alarming increase in physician burnout at Sutter Health in Northern California in 2021 and 2022, the large health system formed a broad interdisciplinary well-being committee and encouraged the formation of local well-being committees at each of its 22 hospitals to try to turn the tide.
    2. “We were able to see a significant decrease in our burnout level and improvement in well-being,” said Jill M. Kacher Cobb, MD, chief wellness officer for Sutter Health system.
    3. “We felt that it was due to multiple things that we did over the course of that year: setting up the systemwide interdisciplinary well-being program, asking for local leadership in well-being at each of our hospitals and also within our medical groups, setting up peer support and really engaging the leaders and sharing tools with them,” said Dr. Kacher Cobb.

  4. Northwest Permanente builds community and culture through leadership

    1. When Stella Dantas, MD, and her husband traveled to the Taiwan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology conference, many attendees eagerly greeted her husband.
    2. “People were coming up and shaking his hand, likely because they thought he was the president. But then I got up to the stage to give my presidential address and surprised people,” said Dr. Dantas, an ob-gyn at Northwest Permanente in Hillsboro, Oregon.
    3. As a leader, Dr. Dantas is committed to creating psychological safety. This serves as the foundation on which to build a strong culture. Naturally, establishing that psychological safety starts at the top with strong, diverse leadership.

  5. Marshfield Clinic encourages women physicians to pursue their passion

    1. When Susan Turney, MD, took over as CEO of Marshfield Clinic Health System more than a decade ago, she scarcely could have imagined how a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic would test her leadership abilities to the limit. Dr. Turney has since retired as CEO, but with women health care leaders still too rare, she shared some of her hard-won wisdom with younger women physicians. One key is to strive for authenticity.
    2. “Be yourself. None of us are really obligated to carry the mantle of all women as it relates to our career trajectory,” Dr. Turney said.

  6. Atlantic Health System embraces physician work groups

    1. As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Atlantic Health System established a committee that was largely focused on physician well-being. It was very effective for the need at that moment and for the time it was in place. But with the health system’s goal to be the best place for physicians to practice in New Jersey, they recognized that the work is broader than what could have been done through just that committee structure.
    2. Part of the systemwide well-being strategy included embracing physician work groups. Atlantic Health System has about 20 committees and work groups for physicians to be involved with. For example, a women in medicine work group is available to discuss what’s working, what’s not and share best practices.