Opinion: Ignoring millennials will worsen the coming crisis in health care leadership

Health care delivery in the United States is being led by practitioners who have ascended to leadership roles primarily through years of loyalty to their organizations. But as burnout worsens and affects the youngest clinicians to the detriment of the system, is this the appropriate cadre to shepherd us towards necessary system transformation?

We share two stories that led us to think about this issue, and offer some suggestions for integrating the junior leaders of tomorrow.

Travis’s story: millennial physicians

Halfway through a recent lunch-hour meeting, I found myself baffled by the scene. My two colleagues and I, a family physician, all in our mid-30s, sat on one side of a giant conference table. On the other side were two senior physicians and the CEO of our medical group.

“What is it,” one was asking, perhaps rhetorically, “about these millennial physicians and burnout?” The CEO announced that he would