Mid-Career: Fostering Physician Well-being Over the Career Life Cycle

This manuscript is the third in a series of 5 articles considering the different stages of physicians' career life cycle and explores the mid-career stage. Mid-career is a demanding time with a number of distinct challenges. Mid-career physicians are often tasked with mentoring and training younger colleagues and taking on leadership responsibilities for their organization or practice group. However, mid-career physicians can also experience decreased support relative to early career, increased administrative burden, a sense of isolation and loneliness, and tension between growing responsibilities at work and home. Many of these challenges are exacerbated for women physicians, who struggle with increased burden of childcare responsibilities as well as a lack of female role models and mentors in leadership positions. Although more work is needed to evaluate the most effective strategies to mitigate the factors that contribute to burnout and loss of professional fulfillment in mid-career physicians, institutional investments in coaching, leadership training, and peer mentorship programs coupled with support for work-life integration may help mid-career physicians achieve greater professional and personal satisfaction during this critical career phase. This article provides an evidence-informed review of the current literature describing both the prevalence of occupational distress in mid-career physicians and the impact of interventions developed to support professional well-being in physicians at this career stage. It also highlights gaps in our knowledge of occupational distress and well-being in mid-career physicians and areas that require additional research.