Are Clinicians Still Feeling the Burn? A Look at HCP Mental Health and Well-Being
May 7, 2025 |
One of the most critical topics to address in health care today is the mental health and well-being of physicians and other healthcare professionals. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic shined a light on the topic, but it continues to be highly important now, 5 years later, as hospitals and practices seek out new ways to help their clinicians.
Every year, Medscape solicits physicians’ thoughts on their mental health and burnout levels in the Medscape Physician Burnout & Depression Report (9226 responses) or the Physician Mental Health (5741 responses) and Well-Being Report. These reports survey thousands of physicians who are part of Medscape’s vast global membership across 15+ specialties to get their honest impressions of their mental health and well-being, what needs to be improved, and where they’re seeing changes.
The 2024 report showed a slight decrease in burnout and depression levels following increases during the years immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic, but clinicians warned that it was too early to make optimistic predictions, noting that while the stress of the pandemic has lessened, it has been replaced by new stressors such as financial pressures and asking fewer clinicians to do more. However, the conversation around physician mental health and well-being has increased over the years, and those improvements resulted in more awareness and resources to support clinicians. In the 2025 report, family medicine physicians reported their mental health and well-being as important to them, with 2 out of 3 calling it a top priority or important. Oncologists gave similar responses, with 73% calling it a top priority or important. Still, 24% of oncologists noted their wellness didn’t get enough of their attention.
Still, physicians are reporting high burnout rates. Emergency medicine, OB/GYN and oncology reported the highest rates of burnout in the 2024 report. Despite this, in the 2025 Report, emergency medicine physicians noted that they believed the medical profession needed to be set up for them to succeed in order to improve their work-life balance, and 73% believed this was an achievable goal.
A Commitment to Mental Health Education
Medscape has been committed to the health and well-being of clinicians for more than 30 years. Education, in particular, can be a powerful tool for physicians by making it easy for them to find and absorb information, and providing information on how physicians can improve their work-life balance and combat burnout. As part of this mission, Medscape launched the Building Bridges in Mental Health and Wellness learning destination page, which offers free educational programs and resources for the healthcare team. These programs help translate data into action and give clinicians the tools they need to make an impact in their practice and support their patients. The learning page covers topics such as depression, schizophrenia, digital therapeutics, ADHD, and more with timely, expert-led information. Since its launch, the learning destination page has featured 220 educational programs, reached 1,408,467 learners, and awarded 505,580 certificates.
In total, Medscape launched 70 psychiatry programs from 2023-2024, reaching 895,000+ total learners and 466,700+ physician learners. This led to 122,800,000+ potential patient lives impacted across 2 years. Medscape’s psychiatry programs are well received, with an NPS score of 61 and 92% of members agreeing that these activities promote improvement in healthcare/patient outcomes.
Additionally, Medscape hosts 2 mental health-focused conferences each year. In 2025, the Annual Psychopharmacology Update will celebrate its 24th year, while the Annual Psychiatry Update will achieve its 18th year in 2026. These conferences bring together clinicians for focused education on timely topics, delivered by leading faculty.
The mental health and well-being of healthcare professionals will continue to be a top priority for the Medscape team with new resources and education still to come in 2025 and beyond.
For more information, please contact Piyali Chatterjee
About Medscape Education
Medscape Education (medscape.org) is the leading destination for continuous professional development, consisting of more than 30 specialty-focused destinations offering thousands of free CME and CE courses for physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.
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