August 2025

Employee sentiment in healthcare is marked by a deep-seated battle against burnout and a sense of being undervalued. On social media, many professionals, from nurses to doctors, argue that "burnout" is a misnomer and that the real issue is "exploitation" by hospital systems focused on profits. They cite under-staffing, long shifts, and a lack of support from management as primary causes. Nurses frequently describe working with patient ratios that they feel are unsafe, leading to emotional and physical exhaustion. The sentiment is that they are being forced to do more with less, with ancillary staff cuts requiring them to perform additional tasks like cleaning rooms. While they are driven by a desire to help people, the systemic issues are leading to a high rate of turnover.

Academic medicine, especially in densely-populated urban areas, has shown a nepotistic hierarchy whereby medical directors and department heads with full-fledged professor status often defer clinic patients to fellows and assistant professors (early attending physicians) with already-filled clinic schedules. Safety and security is also a problem, with many administrators focusing on RVUs and not about disgruntled patients being angry with wait times and under-staffing. In cases where patients bring weapons, many administrators have dismissed staff complaints of feeling unsafe in order to preserver RVU flow and avoid bad press.

Residents and fellows who work in academic medicine who are looking to specialize often find that they are never permitted to focus on their specializations in academic hospitals due to administrators’ obsession with RVUs as opposed to proper patient care and staff and patient satisfaction. This leads to burnout and either delays in completing their professional programs due to transfers to different institutions, or changing specialty focus, altogether.

The healthcare sector continues to be a dominant force in the U.S. labor market. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the industry added 55,400 jobs in July, accounting for more than 75% of all job growth in the country for the month. This strong performance is being driven by the ongoing demand for services, particularly in ambulatory healthcare (outpatient services), hospitals, and home health care. The pharmaceutical and life sciences sub-sector also showed steady growth, with more than 3,000 new jobs added, indicating continued investment in research and development.