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Among physician specialties, the biggest declines were seen within internal medicine, family practice, and emergency medicine fields. (Getty)

Nearly 334,000 physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other clinicians left the workforce in 2021 due to retirement, burnout, and pandemic-related stressors, according to new data.

Physicians experienced the largest loss, with 117,000 professionals leaving the workforce in 2021, followed by nurse practitioners, with 53,295 departures, and physician assistants, with 22,704 departures. About 22,000 physical therapists also left the healthcare workforce and 15,500 licensed clinical social workers, according to a report from commercial intelligence company Definitive Healthcare.

Among physician specialties, the biggest declines were seen within internal medicine, family practice, and emergency medicine fields. "Like clinicians and registered nurses, providers in these three specialties frequently worked on the frontlines during the pandemic, risking exposure and facing many of the same pressures and stressors as described earlier," the report authors wrote.

In 2021, 15,000 internal medicine doctors left the workforce, followed by 13,015 providers who left family practice and 10,874 who left clinical psychology.

Definitive Healthcare's report leverages data from more than 2 million physicians and nurses, 9,200 hospitals and IDNs, and 128,000 physician groups.

Among high levels of burnout, many healthcare providers are nearing retirement age, the report noted.

 According to Definitive Healthcare data, many physicians across several healthcare specialties are on the verge of retirement or will be near that age soon. Research from the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) found that nearly 45% of doctors are older than age 55, and more than 40% of active physicians will be 65 or older in the next ten years. The average age of a nurse is 57, the report said.

Physicians leaving the workforce of patient care

Retirement age, disability, burnout, including pandemic stress, new non-clinical role, loss of license due to malfeasance, malpractice.

Plan B

Plan B is about mixing boxes, not stacking them. Instead of a sequence of education, work and retirement, the approach means blending the three during your life and creating a portfolio career. In addition, if your interest is some kind of alternative career using your skills as an experienced physician, then you need to plan sufficiently ahead of time, with areas of overlap and transition, instead of just jumping off the cliff once you decide to shove the white coat.