Wrestling With the Invincibility Myth: Exploring Physicians' Resistance to Wellness and Resilience-Building...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Physician Well-being
• Organizational Psychology

Background:

• Physicians face systemic challenges and organizational demands, leading to widespread burnout.
• Physicians often resist wellness and resilience interventions, despite organizational efforts to address burnout.
• Understanding physician resistance to wellness initiatives is crucial for effective burnout mitigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To empirically investigate why physicians resist wellness and resilience-building interventions.
• To explore physicians' perceptions of burnout, wellness initiatives, and resilience strategies.
• To identify the influence of professional values and organizational norms on physician engagement with wellness programs.

Main Methods:

• Constructivist grounded theory approach.
• Semistructured interviews with 22 faculty physicians in Canada.
• Constant comparative analysis to identify emergent themes.

Main Results:

• Physicians feel dehumanized by organizational values that do not extend compassion to them.
• Professional values and organizational norms create an "invincibility myth," hindering work-life balance and discouraging help-seeking.
• Physicians resist individual-focused interventions, viewing them as futile without systemic and organizational change.

Conclusions:

• Professional and organizational norms contribute to physician dehumanization and burnout, explaining resistance to resilience strategies.
• Addressing physician burnout requires challenging problematic professional values and fostering a compassionate organizational culture.
• Sustaining a resilient physician workforce necessitates both individual adaptation and institutional commitment to systemic improvements.