Health Humanities' Influence in Physician Burnout

Health humanities aims to increase understanding of how models of disease, illness, health, and wellness shape understanding of the patient, caregiver, and community experience. Essentially, health humanities advocates for the humane care of the whole person; we assert that this helps furnish physicians with a purpose and protect against emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a decreased sense of personal accomplishment. A study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine demonstrated an association between humanities exposure and a lower level of adverse traits (one of which was burnout) in medical students. We aim to further this investigation of humanities and burnout in the medical field by specifically inspecting the relationship between health humanities engagement and levels of physician burnout. This study, in turn, will not only elucidate the effect of health humanities engagement on physician burnout but also have further implications for medical curriculums and the overall alleviation of physician burnout.