Quotes Illustrating Main Themes and Subthemes Within Burnout and Commitment to Primary Care
| Main theme | Subtheme | Illustrative quote |
|---|---|---|
| Emotional exhaustion (N = 8) | Exhausted/poor work–life balance (N = 7) | I will say that there's a fair amount of burnout, just being over it…We're back to burnout. We're toast. We're toast… (5 – Physician) I just realized that there is absolutely no home-life work balance here, and that's not how I want to live. (11 – Nurse Practitioner) |
| Critical mass of stress (N = 7) | The level of stress for everybody is the highest it's been since it all started. You see it every day… Sometimes there will be one person that just absolutely steamrolls you, and that's what we're dealing with. Patients are cursing at the staff, not only on the telephone but in person at the front desk. Insulting them, insulting their habitus. You know, “You're a F-A-T person and you're stupid.” Like, this is not okay. I'm getting involved much more frequently and having to set boundaries for people. We have had to discharge patients for behavior. Those are the struggles. (3 – Office Manager) | |
| Personal accomplishment (N = 4) | Made it through (N = 3) | It's made me feel grateful to be involved and to be able to help people, because it's just been a really horrible experience for a lot of people, and I'm glad that I've been able to have some part in all of this. When I look back in 20 years and think about this year and a half, I will be glad that I had some role in helping people. (24 – Behavioral Health Consultant)Well, I mean, now I feel like I've kind of made it through, happy to have made it through… (2 – Physician) |
| Personal connections (N = 1) | “Yeah. I'm trying to think. I also think, in terms of looking back, in the past year, just also the importance of social connections. Not just with patients, but with other staff. I think I really missed seeing my nurses, my medical assistants and my colleagues in the clinic. And so I think that lesson, also, just reinforces the facts. No, I'm not a feeler person, but it hit home too, that, how important it is. We still like a balance of staying connected to one another. That interaction, I think, goes a long way.” (4 – Physician) | |
| Commitment to primary care (N = 14) | Deepened commitment and sense of purpose (N = 7) | I really like it. I really, really like it. I think I've come sort of full circle. This is where I'm meant to be.” (7 – Nurse) |
| Leaving primary care (N = 10) | “I'm either going to fix it in the next two years or I'm going to leave it unfixed but I can't take anymore. It's crazy.” (5 – Physician) “I'm going to stay on for nursing, but I don't know that I would stay on in primary care or in this kind of a practice … At this point, I was even thinking like a minute clinic or something. I just need to have something where you get in, you do your work, you give them 110%, you go home. You're done.” (11 – Nurse Practitioner) “And we, our practice, never had turnover until all of this. I've been here 16 years. My manager's been here for 20. We have longevity in staff. So, this is all shocking to us that no one wants to really work.” (25 – Office Manager) |