Study: Physicians with disabilities are more likely to consider leaving workforce

Physicians with disabilities are more likely to reduce their clinical hours and consider leaving medicine than their peers, according to a recent JAMA Network Open study. The researchers found that these physicians are at a greater risk of workforce attrition due to health conditions, burnout, and unsafe work environments. However, they also determined that accommodations may reduce these risks.

Among the 5,917 surveyed physicians, 154 (2.6%) reported having a disability. While 94.6% reported having no disability, the remaining 2.8% did not disclose their disability status. Roughly 37% of respondents identified as women, and nearly 63% identified as men.

Approximately 36.4% of the surveyed physicians with a disability reported an intention to leave the practice of medicine, a much higher rate compared to those without a disability (23.5%). Burnout was the most frequently cited reason for considering leaving or pausing medical practice among physicians with disabilities (67.5%), followed by underlying health conditions (52.7%) and high-risk work conditions (24.5%).

Nearly 80% of the surveyed physicians with disabilities reported receiving accommodations from their employers. Just over 34% of physicians with disabilities who received accommodations considered leaving medicine, compared to 54.2% for those who did not receive accommodations.

“Notably, for those without accommodations, the rate at which physicians cite burnout as a driver to leave or pause clinical practice was higher than for other reasons,” according to the study authors. “These findings suggest that access to accommodations for physicians with disabilities may be critical to workforce retention and mitigating burnout.”