Burnout Driving Family Doctors to Quit Medicine, Study Finds

April 2, 2026
Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

You are more likely to lose your family doctor if they’re stressed and burned out, a new study reports.

Family doctors struggling with burnout are more likely to quit medicine altogether or leave their practice for a new one, researchers found.

Doctors were 70% more likely to leave medicine if they were feeling burned out, which can include emotional exhaustion, detachment from patients and colleagues, or feeling that work is no longer meaningful, researchers reported March 30 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Burned-out doctors were also 40% more likely to move to a new practice, the study found.

“These findings highlight the urgent need to address work conditions and professional satisfaction for both the stability of the physician workforce and the well-being of patients,” co-lead researcher Dr. Dhruv Khullar, an associate professor of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, said in a news release.

For the study, researchers analyzed responses from nearly 20,000 doctors to American Board of Family Medicine surveys conducted between 2016 and 2020. These surveys are required for docs to maintain their board certification.

The surveys included the questions “I feel burned out from my work” and “I have become more callous toward people.” Doctors were considered to be suffering burnout if they agreed with either condition on at least a weekly basis.

Overall, nearly 44% of doctors reported burnout. Doctors younger than 55 were more likely to report burnout than older doctors, and women more likely than men, the study found.

Among doctors who reported burnout, 4.8% changed practices versus 3.4% of those not burned out.

Likewise, 5.4% of doctors with burnout left medicine completely compared with 3.7% of those not burned out.

“To our knowledge, this is the first national-level study examining the association between physician burnout and turnover,” said co-lead researcher Dr. Amelia Bond, an associate professor of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine.

The results indicate that burnout could drain America’s physician workforce, which is already shorthanded, researchers said.

“The issue definitely warrants more attention,” Bond said.

However, the researchers noted that the study could only show an association and not a direct cause-and-effect link between burnout and doctors leaving the profession.

More information

The American Medical Association has more on physician burnout.

SOURCES: Weill Cornell Medicine, news release, March 30, 2026; JAMA Internal Medicine, March 30, 2026