WMA Statement on Physicians Well-Being

Adopted by the 66^th WMA General Assembly, Moscow, Russia, October 2015
and revised by the 76th WMA General Assembly, Porto, Portugal, October 2025

PREAMBLE

The World Health Organization defines “health” as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being” and defines “well-being” as “a positive state experienced by individuals and societies. Similar to health, it is a resource for daily life and is determined by social, economic and environmental conditions.” Physicians, like all human beings, experience personal, institutional, and systemic challenges to their well-being. For physicians, these challenges can include, mental illness, disabilities and injuries resulting from work hazards, occupational stress and burnout often caused by shortages of human and other resources, and performance-oriented policy pressures.

In the WMA Declaration of Geneva, physicians promise to attend to their own “health, well-being, and abilities in order to provide care of the highest standard,” recognizing that physician well-being can positively impact patient care and public health. Conversely, challenges to physician well-being can put patients at risk, compromise physicians’ relationships with patients as well as colleagues, and undermine public trust in the profession.

The relationship between physician well-being, patient care and public health is also recognized by the International Labour Organisation/World Health Organisation’s Guide for the Development and Implementation of Occupational Health and Safety Programmes for Health Workers, an important document presenting key elements and deliverables of national occupational safety programmes that help promote physician well-being, decrease work-related risks and prevent occupational diseases in health care workers, including physicians.

Risks and Barriers for Physicians Well-being

Professional Roles and Expectations

1. The medical profession often attracts highly driven individuals with a strong sense of duty. Successfully completing the long and intense educational requirements often confers upon physicians a high degree of respect and responsibility in their communities.
2. With these high levels of respect and responsibility, physicians are subject to high expectations from patients and the public. These expectations can contribute to prioritizing the care of others over care of self and feelings of guilt and selfishness for managing their own well-being.
3. A reason physicians may delay seeking care or help is their concern about confidentiality and professional repercussions, compounded by stigma and a prevailing culture in medicine that discourages vulnerability.

Factors that affect physician wellbeing

4. Working conditions, including workload and working hours, affect physicians’ motivation, job satisfaction, personal life and physical and psychological health during their careers.
5. Physicians may be exposed to a variety of occupational risks including physical (radiation, noise, chemicals), infections, or related to non-ergonomic working conditions (particularly for surgical disciplines and other specialties with extended periods of standing and musculoskeletal system exertion). Physicians who are employed by small organizations or who are self-employed may be at even higher risk for occupational exposures and may not have access to health and safety programs provided by large health care establishments.
6. Medical students, physicians and physicians in postgraduate education often confront emotionally stressful and traumatic situations in the exercise of their profession. They may also be victims of violence.
7. Medical students and physicians in postgraduate education can be victims of bullying, harassment and discrimination during their medical education. Due to their position within the medical hierarchy, they may feel powerless to confront these behaviours.
8. Physician autonomy is one of the strongest predictors of physician satisfaction, and provision of high-quality healthcare services. Increasing external regulatory pressures such as excessive emphasis on cost efficiencies, administrative and technical aggravations, concerns about consequences of reporting medical errors, and malpractice actions may unduly influence medical decision-making and diminish a physician’s autonomy.
9. In extreme cases, emotional and physical challenges in the health care environment during national or global emergency situations such as work actions, natural disasters, pandemics and armed conflicts can occur. Difficult practice situations, lack of human and material resources and the pressure of the fast-paced decision making required all contribute to an elevated risk of physician burnout and a challenging work environment.

Mental health risks, prevention strategies and treatment for physicians

10. Physicians face a heightened risk of developing mental disorders due to various factors. Despite their awareness of the importance of early diagnosis and treatment, some physicians may conceal their illnesses and delay seeking help until they can no longer fulfill their professional duties. Barriers such as denial, desensitization to issues, concerns about confidentiality, reluctance to assume the patient role, fear of disciplinary actions, potential loss of practice privileges, reliance on self-care, and lack of systemic support contribute to this reluctance. Mental and behavioral health issues, including but not limited to depression, anxiety, burnout and substance use disorders, often overlap with physical and cognitive problems throughout a physician’s career, impacting both personal well-being and patient care. The mental aspect of physician well-being is addressed in greater detail by the WMA Statement on Physician Mental Health.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The World Medical Association recommends that constituent members and their members should recognize and, where possible, actively address the following:

Systems-level Advocacy

1. Constituent members should support the right of physicians to have working conditions that help limit the risk of burnout and empower them to care for their personal health by balancing their professional medical commitments and their private lives and responsibilities.
2. Constituent members should emphasize the importance of optimal working conditions. Optimal working conditions include a safe and reasonable maximum number of consecutive and total working hours, adequate rest between shifts, an appropriate number of non-working days, including paid non-working days, and targeted system-wide efforts to reduce non-clinical work burdens. Working conditions must not put the safety of patients or physicians at risk. Physicians should be engaged in establishing safe conditions within medical workplaces.
3. Professional autonomy is an essential factor of well-being; relevant organizations should actively and constructively address professional autonomy and work-life balance problems and involve physicians in making decisions about their work lives.
4. It is essential that regulating bodies, health care systems and other key parties to protect and uphold the privacy and confidentiality of physician-patients. It is also essential that physicians can seek help without fear of punitive action, including through the decriminalization of help-seeking behaviour where such barriers exist.

Workplace Standards and Best Practices

5. Workplaces should promote conditions conducive to healthy lifestyles, including access to healthy food choices, regular physical activity, including through the provision of exercise areas and rest areas, nutrition counselling and support to combat addictions.
6. Workplaces should also strive to support physicians in their family responsibilities by offering options such as flexible working hours, postpartum support, childcare facilities, and family care leave.
7. Physicians, physicians in postgraduate education and medical students must be able to practice in an environment free from harassment, violence, and all forms of discrimination. They should be protected from verbal, cyber, physical and sexual aggression and abuse.
8. Physicians, physicians in postgraduate education and medical students deeply need safe and stimulating collaboration in the workplace. Workplaces should promote interdisciplinary teamwork, and communication between physicians and all other professionals in the workplace should be offered in a spirit of cooperation and respect. Education about communications skills, self-awareness and team-work should be considered.
9. Institutions must take active responsibility for creating and maintaining psychologically safe and inclusive learning environments.
10. Constituent members should act to implement the recommendations in the WMA Statement on Workplace Violence in the Health Sector. Medical staff members should undergo training to identify potentially violent people, adopt an appropriate approach and communicate effectively with them. Health care facilities should safeguard against violence including routine violence risk audits, especially in mental health treatment facilities and emergency departments. Staff members who are victims of violence or who report violence should be supported by management and offered medical, psychological and legal counselling. Reporting of violence should be made practical, confidential and safe.
11. Medical consultations should be offered in the workplace and at the outset of physician postgraduate education to identify any health issues.
12. Medical schools and teaching hospitals should also develop and maintain independent, confidential, and easily accessible health services for physicians in postgraduate education and for medical students and raise awareness of and access to such programs.
13. Health systems, regulators, administrators and technology vendors should be aware that the increasing burden of documentation and reporting in healthcare increases physicians’ cognitive load. Improving the user-friendliness of electronic systems, reducing and simplifying documents and forms, and providing adequate personal support for data management can enhance physician well being.

Education, resources and programmes

14. Constituent members should recognize their obligation to promote or provide education about physician well-being. Constituent members should collaboratively encourage and promote research to establish best practices that promote physician health and to determine the impact of physician well-being on patient care. Constituent members should encourage dissemination of research results and implementation of demonstrated best practices.
15. Constituent members should also support interprofessional collaboration and inclusive leadership development as essential to promoting healthy workplace cultures. In addition, medical education should include education on physician work hazards.
16. Physician well-being should be supported within and outside the workplace. Support may include, but is not limited to, referral to medical treatment, counselling, peer networks, telehealth-based mental health services, and digital tools designed to promote resilience and coping. Physician health programs can assist physicians to proactively help themselves via prevention strategies and can aid physicians who are ill via assessment, referral to treatment and follow-up. Constituent members should promote the availability of culturally-adapted physician health programs for all physicians.
17. Resources for the early identification, intervention and special arrangements for the care of physician-patients should be available to protect the health of physicians, especially during national and global emergency situations. Prevention, early assistance and intervention should be available and separate from any disciplinary process.

Physicians and the Physician Community

18. To preserve the quality of their performance, physicians have a responsibility to maintain personal health and wellness, broadly construed as preventing or treating acute or chronic diseases, including mental illness, disabilities, and occupational stress. Collectively, physicians have an obligation to ensure that colleagues are able to provide safe and effective care, which includes promoting health and wellness amongst physicians.
19. Physicians evaluating and treating their medical colleagues should not be required to report any aspects of their physician-patient’s care in any manner not required for their non-physician patients.