Sacred duty, silent suffering? A multimethod investigation of medical culture and physician burnout
(2026)
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- Abstract
- Medicine is a profoundly meaningful profession in which physicians dedicate their knowledge and skills to alleviate suffering and care for others. Yet in recent decades, this vocation has come under increasing strain, marked by a persistent crisis of physician burnout. While extensive research has examined individual and organizational contributors, an essential dimension remains insufficiently addressed: the role of medical culture in shaping physicians’ vulnerability to and experience of burnout. This thesis fills this gap by exploring how specific cultural assumptions influence burnout and related health outcomes. Four research questions guide our work across four empirical chapters: (1) can harmful cultural norms be identified, modelled, and operationalized? (2) to what extent are these norms associated with burnout and other health-related outcomes? (3) do physicians endorse these norms uniformly, or do patterns vary across subgroups? and (4) how do physicians themselves articulate and make sense of these cultural expectations? Findings suggest that medical culture is a macrosystemic influence of physician well-being, and that training and socialization play a central role in the transmission of harmful cultural norms. These results are discussed in light of their theoretical, research and practical implications. Overall, this thesis underscores the need to address and change specific cultural norms in medicine to prevent physician burnout.
- Affiliations
UCLouvain SSH/IPSY - Psychological Sciences Research Institute
Citations
Banse, E. (2026). Sacred duty, silent suffering? A multimethod investigation of medical culture and physician burnout. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/274404