The North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) is a global, multidisciplinary and not-for-profit organization dedicated to producing and disseminating innovative new knowledge from all disciplines relevant to primary health care, and particularly family medicine. It has a bi-national governance structure (USA & Canada) and an international membership that includes physicians, academicians, researchers and students. NAPCRG has over 130 Member Organisations from around the world representing some 600,000 family doctors, plus a wide range of Associate Members and Individual Members. It also supports a number of Working Parties, Special Interest Groups and Young Doctors Movements to advance specific areas of work that are important to family medicine.

Physicians are a very specialized class of employee that has unique responsibilities and challenges. Their job requires them to make decisions that impact the lives of their patients and the public. They must also be aware of a broad range of policy, regulatory and clinical issues that may impact their practice. In addition, they often face significant financial pressures that can put their professional and personal well-being at risk.

As a result, it is no wonder that many doctors are seeking to improve their working conditions by organizing in their workplaces. While each workplace is different, the motivations that drive employees to organize are not. Respect, a voice in the workplace, autonomy, and burnout are frequently cited reasons that motivate workers to seek unionization.

With the rapid shift from independent medical practices to employed physicians in large health systems, physician group practices being bought out by for-profit companies and private equity, and the influx of new technologies, it is more difficult than ever for many doctors to retain control over their day-to-day work in the office and in their patient interactions. As a result, the number of doctors who are choosing to organize themselves as a means of protecting their rights and working conditions has grown steadily in recent years.

While most healthcare organizations would say they want their physicians to thrive, they must take steps to truly support the needs of their employees in order to do so. In the past, this has meant creating avenues for physicians to communicate directly with leadership about the issues they are facing. While some organizations are improving, there is still more work to be done.

One example of this is when a physician is asked to perform a task that could easily be performed by another staff member. This type of administrative burden on the physician is associated with lower professional satisfaction, higher job stress, and can even lead to burnout. It also takes time away from higher value, more engaging work for which the physician is uniquely qualified to perform. This is a type of task that should be reviewed by physicians and compliance officers together to find areas where policies are being over-interpreted or misinterpreted, and to root out tasks that someone other than the physician could be taking on. The AMA’s STEPS Forward(r) resource called “Reducing Regulatory Burden Playbook: Avoid Overinterpreting the Rules” provides several pointed questions for physicians to ask their administrators when they are told that a certain requirement is mandatory or required by regulation.