Building community during the COVID-19 pandemic: a system level approach to physician well-being

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, physician burnout was identified as reaching crisis proportions, and the pandemic is expected to worsen the already perilous state of physician wellness. It has affected physicians’ emotional health, not only by increasing workload demands, but also by eroding resilience under increasing pressures. The mental health consequences are expected to persist long after the pandemic subsides. With physician wellness increasingly recognized as a shared responsibility between individual physicians and the health care system, system-level approaches have been identified as important interventions for addressing physician well-being. In this article, we describe two evidence-guided initiatives implemented in our hospitalist network during the current pandemic: a trained peer-support team and facilitated physician online group discussions. These initiatives acknowledge the emotional strain of physicians’ work and challenge the “iron doc” culture of medicine. Our efforts build community and shift culture toward improved physician wellness. We suggest that the pandemic might be an opportunity for our profession to strengthen our support networks and for physician leaders to advance physician wellness in their work environments.