About

Dr. Chantal M. Brazeau has been a faculty member at New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) since 1995, where she is a Professor of Family Medicine and Psychiatry. She received her MD from the University of Ottawa and completed her psychiatry residency at the former UMDNJ. Dr. Brazeau maintains board certification in both Psychiatry and Family Medicine. Her professional focus includes mental health in primary care, addressing depression, anxiety disorders, and health habit control. She has also dedicated significant effort to healthcare professional and student well-being and burnout. Dr. Brazeau has served in various leadership roles, including Director of Medical Student Education, Interim Chair of the Department of Family Medicine, Assistant Dean for Faculty Vitality at NJMS since 2016, and Chief Wellness Officer at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS) since December 2019. She was also appointed Assistant Dean for Faculty Vitality at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) in January 2020. Her research and teaching have focused on professional well-being, with her seminal article on matriculating medical student distress marking a turning point in the field. As the inaugural Chief Wellness Officer, she leads wellness initiatives for faculty, healthcare providers, and team members within RBHS and collaborates with RWJBarnabas Health to explore wellness opportunities across the healthcare enterprise.

Research topics

• Nursing
• Medicine
• Psychology
• Political Science
• Family medicine
• Clinical psychology
• Demography
• Internal medicine
• Management
• Public relations

Selected publications

• Mediating Factors and Well-Being Differences by Gender Among Academic Physicians

  JAMA Network Open · 2026-03-18

  articleOpen access

  Importance: A greater understanding of the factors associated with occupational distress for female physicians will allow organizations to more effectively realize the benefits of improving physician occupational well-being. Objective: To identify factors associated with occupational distress among female physicians. Design, Setting, and Participants: This survey study was conducted at 15 US academic medical institutions who participate in the Healthcare Professional Well-Being Academic Consortium. A cross-sectional, voluntary survey was administered to attending physicians from October 2019 to July 2021 to assess occupational well-being. Data were analyzed from April to September 2023. Exposure: Physician gender was used as the exposure variable. Main Outcomes and Measures: Burnout and professional fulfillment were measured using the Professional Fulfillment Index, which included subscales to assess leadership support, personal-organizational values alignment, control over schedule, electronic health record helpfulness, and self-valuation. A secondary data analysis was performed to describe markers of occupational well-being by gender. Mediation models were used to assess the degree to which contributing factors mediated the difference in occupational distress between female and male physicians. Results: The survey was completed by 19 088 of 37 511 attending physicians (response rate of 50.8%), among whom 16 731 self-identified as male or female and were included in the analysis (8197 female [43%] and 8534 male [45%]), and 2357 (12%) either did not report their gender or reported a gender other than male or female. Respondents' ages ranged from younger than 29 to older than 60 years, with 40 to 49 years being the most common age bracket for both female (2788 participants [34%]) and male (2448 participants [29%]) physicians. Compared with male physicians, female physicians experienced more burnout (3338 of 8052 participants [42%] vs 2769 of 8404 participants [33%]; P < .001) and less professional fulfillment (2786 of 8133 participants [34%] vs 3852 of 8463 participants [46%]; P < .001). In mediation models including 5 factors associated with occupational well-being, the direct association between burnout and gender was no longer significant (B = 0.04; 95% CI, -0.01 to 0.08; P = .14), while the gender difference in professional fulfillment remained significant (B = -0.09; 95% CI, -0.14 to -0.04; P = .001). The indirect association of gender with burnout through self-valuation (B = 0.27; 95% CI, 0.24 to 0.29; P < .001) accounted for the majority (63%) of the total difference in burnout between female and male physicians. Conclusions and Relevance: In this survey study of attending physicians, the gender difference in burnout was fully mediated by 5 factors associated with occupational well-being, with self-valuation being the largest mediator. These same factors did not fully explain the difference in professional fulfillment, suggesting that further research is needed.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• How Peer Support Helps Heal the Culture of Medicine from Within

  NEJM Catalyst · 2024-12-18 · 6 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Cultivating Connections: An Interprofessional Peer Support Model

  Psychiatric Services · 2024-09-23 · 3 citations

  articleSenior author

  Peer support models have existed for decades in behavioral health care and are being developed for health care professionals to help address high rates of burnout and stress in the health care environment. Such models typically involve individuals from the same profession. With the concurrent increase of interprofessional integrated behavioral health care models, interprofessional peer support seems a viable model. This Open Forum describes how a peer support program for physicians and faculty scientists evolved to include a broader range of health care professionals, providing a framework for interprofessional peer support programs for the behavioral health care workforce.

  PublisherDOI

• A Pause to Explore the Impact of Physicians’ Work on Personal Relationships

  Mayo Clinic Proceedings · 2024-10-01 · 1 citations

  letterOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• “Having Support at Work ‘Is Different’ and Important”: A Qualitative Study of Virtual Peer Discussion Groups With Medical School Faculty

  Academic Medicine · 2024-11-15

  article1st authorCorresponding

  PURPOSE: In response to the need to support health care professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic, an innovative, peer-led discussion group program for medical school faculty, called CIRCLE (Colleague Involved in Reaching Colleagues through Listening and Empathy), was developed at Rutgers Health. This article describes results of a qualitative analysis of the participants' experiences, explores virtual communication platform use during this peer support program, and identifies the program's beneficial elements. METHOD: CIRCLE was inaugurated in October 2020 at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School using evidence-informed topics. The inaugural CIRCLE peer-led discussion groups included 50 physicians who met twice monthly in groups of 5 to 8 between October 2020 and April 2021. Deidentified transcript data were iteratively reviewed using conventional content analysis, including familiarization, thematic framework creation, indexing, charting, mapping, and interpretation. Themes were grouped into 4 conceptual framework categories based on social support theory in context of work-related stress: emotional, appraisal, informational, and instrumental support. RESULTS: Themes emerged based on the framework: emotional support (connecting on a deeper level, importance of support at work, COVID-19 made virtual connections needed and relevant), appraisal support (feeling "not alone," safe space to connect and share), informational support (sharing self-care strategies), and instrumental support (incentives to join are helpful but connection leads to engagement, some structure but "not too much" is important, virtual modalities are convenient and conducive to connection). CONCLUSIONS: Benefits of peer discussion groups include deeper connections at work, reduced isolation, safe sharing, and exchange of information on self-care. Connection and balancing structure and autonomy were important to engagement. Virtual modalities were viewed as feasible, convenient, and conducive to connection. This article highlights the benefits and convenience of virtual peer-led discussion groups for medical school clinical faculty and provides evidence for content development of these programs.

  PublisherDOI

• Navigating Minority &amp; Gender Discrimination, Substance Use Disorder, Financial Distress &amp; Workplace Politics: Lessons For Work-Life Wellness in Academic Medicine: Part 2 of 3

  Kansas Journal of Medicine · 2023-06-20 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  In this second of three manuscripts addressing a range of complex work and personal issues, the authors explore case scenarios with characters who work in the fields of general surgery, orthopedic surgery, anesthesiology, neurology, radiology, and otolaryngology. The medical specialty identifiers help inform some baseline understanding of the demands of that particular profession but are less pertinent than the specifics of each case. In this manuscript, the authors dive into the topics of navigating a lawsuit and professional burnout, personal finances, substance use disorder, demands of clinical work and workplace politics, diversity and inclusion, and dealing with major personal illness. The authors provide practical steps to help the readers deal with similar situations and provide insight to support persons on how to improve support structures.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Well-Being Parameters and Intention to Leave Current Institution Among Academic Physicians

  JAMA Network Open · 2023 · 177 citations

  • Family medicine
  • Medicine
  • Psychology

  Importance: Physician turnover interrupts care delivery and creates health care system financial burden. Objective: To describe the prevalence of burnout, professional fulfillment, and intention to leave (ITL) among physicians at academic-affiliated health care systems and identify institutional and individual factors associated with ITL. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study administered a survey to 37 511 attending-level medical specialists at 15 academic medical institutions participating in the Healthcare Professional Well-Being Academic Consortium. Data were collected from October 2019 to July 2021. Statistical analysis was performed from May 2022 to March 2023. Exposures: Hypothesized institutional and individual determinants of occupational well-being. Main Outcomes and Measures: The main outcome was ITL, defined as having at least a moderate intention (a score of 2 on a 0-4 scale) to leave one's institution within the next 2 years. Additional outcomes included burnout and professional fulfillment, defined using published Professional Fulfillment Index cut points. Results: Of 18 719 academic physician survey respondents (8381 [44.8%] male; 2388 [12.8%] Asian, 10 599 [56.6%] White, 1039 [5.6%] other race, 4693 [25.1%] unknown race; 294 [1.6%] Hispanic or Latina/Latino/Latinx), 6903 of 18 217 (37.9%) met criteria for burnout and 7301 of 18 571 (39.3%) for professional fulfillment; 5177 of 15 890 (32.6%) reported moderate or greater ITL. Burnout, professional fulfillment, and ITL varied across specialties. After adjusting for demographics, each 1-point increase (range 0-10) in burnout was directly associated with ITL (odds ratio [OR], 1.52 [95% CI, 1.49-1.55])c, and each 1-point increase in professional fulfillment was inversely associated with ITL (OR, 0.64 [95% CI, 0.63-0.65]). After adjusting for demographics, burnout, and professional fulfillment, each 1-point increase (range 0-10) in supportive leadership behaviors (OR, 0.83 [95% CI, 0.82-0.84]), peer support (OR, 0.93 [95% CI, 0.91-0.95]), personal-organizational values alignment (OR, 0.81 [95% CI, 0.80-0.82]), perceived gratitude (OR, 0.95 [95% CI, 0.92-0.97]), COVID-19 organizational support (OR, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.85-0.91]), and electronic health record helpfulness (OR, 0.95 [95% CI, 0.93-0.97]) were inversely associated with ITL, whereas each 1-point increase (range 0-10) in depression (OR, 1.08 [95% CI, 1.05-1.10]) and negative impact of work on personal relationships (OR, 1.09 [1.07-1.11]) were directly associated with ITL. Conclusions and Relevance: In this cross-sectional study of academic physicians, 32.6% indicated moderate or higher ITL within 2 years. Burnout, lack of professional fulfillment, and other well-being factors were associated with ITL, suggesting the need for a comprehensive approach to reduce physician turnover.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Designing and Building a Portfolio of Individual Support Resources for Physicians

  Academic Medicine · 2023-05-23 · 19 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  As health care organizations in the United States move toward recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, physicians and clinical faculty are experiencing occupational burnout and various manifestations of distress. To mitigate these challenges, health care organizations must optimize the work environment and provide support for individual clinicians using a variety of approaches, including mentoring, group-based peer support, individual peer support, coaching, and psychotherapy. While often conflated, each of these approaches offers distinct benefits. Mentoring is a longitudinal 1-on-1 relationship, typically focused on career development, usually with an experienced professional guiding a junior professional. Group-based peer support involves regular, longitudinal meetings of health professionals to discuss meaningful topics, provide mutual support to one another, and foster community. Individual peer support involves training peers to provide timely 1-on-1 support for a distressed colleague dealing with adverse clinical events or other professional challenges. Coaching involves a certified professional helping an individual identify their values and priorities and consider changes that would allow them to adhere to these more fully, and providing longitudinal support that fosters accountability for action. Individual psychotherapy is a longitudinal, short- or long-term professional relationship during which specific therapeutic interventions are delivered by a licensed mental health professional. When distress is severe, this is the best approach. Although some overlap exists, these approaches are distinct and complementary. Individuals may use different methods at different career stages and for different challenges. Organizations seeking to address a specific need should consider which approach is most suitable. Over time, a portfolio of offerings is typically needed to holistically address the diverse needs of clinicians. A stepped care model using a population health approach may be a cost-effective way to promote mental health and prevent occupational distress and general psychiatric symptoms.

  PublisherDOI

• Impact of COVID-19 on American Family Physicians’ Intent to Retreat from Clinical Care

  The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine · 2023 · 6 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Medicine
  • Family medicine
  • Nursing

  <h3>Purpose:</h3> This survey evaluated whether the COVID-19 pandemic was a traumatic stress event for family physicians associated with burnout, changes in life priorities, and intentions to retreat from clinical practice. <h3>Methods:</h3> We report on 683 clinically active family physicians surveyed through the Council of Academic Family Medicine’s Educational Research Alliance (CERA) in the fall of 2021. <h3>Results:</h3> Overall, 35.2% of family physicians experienced the pandemic as a traumatic stress like event. This was associated with changing life priorities (OR 2.6, CI 1.8-3.9), burnout (OR 1.6, CI 1.1 to 2.4), and withdrawal from clinical practice in various ways. Those who changed their priorities in life were more likely to restrict scope of practice (OR 3.9, CI 2.6-5.9), reduce clinical work effort (OR 3.4, 2.3 to 5.1), relocate (OR 3.1, CI 2.0 to 4.8), retire (OR 2.7, CI 1.4-4.9), reroute their career away from patient care (OR 2.1, CI 1.4-3.1) and less likely to avoid redesigning the practice to improve well-being (OR 0.3, CI 0.2-0.7). Those who experienced burnout were more likely to retire (OR 5.5, CI 2.8 to 10.5), reduce clinical work effort (OR 4.2, CI 2.9-6.1), reroute their career away from patient care (OR 3.9, CI 2.6-5.8), relocate (OR 3.8, CI 2.4 to 5.9), and restrict scope of practice (OR 3.3, CI 2.3 to 4.9). Overall, 48.5% of family physicians expressed some intention to retreat from clinical practice. <h3>Conclusion:</h3> The COVID-19 pandemic impacted family physician’s career plans. Remedying burnout is a high-yield opportunity for retaining clinically active family physicians. Physicians retreating from clinical medicine related to changing life’s priorities needs further exploration.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Virtual faculty development peer programmes support physician well‐being

  Medical Education · 2022-02-25 · 6 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Tait D. Shanafelt

  42 shared

• Christine Moutier

  American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

  38 shared

• Anne Eacker

  Kaiser Permanente

  37 shared

• Daniel Satele

  Mayo Clinic in Florida

  37 shared

• Steven J. Durning

  Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

  37 shared

• Jeff A. Sloan

  Mayo Clinic in Florida

  37 shared

• F. Stanford Massie

  University of Alabama

  37 shared

• Kristine Olson

  Yale New Haven Health System

  22 shared

Education

• M.D.

  University of Ottawa

  1983

Awards & honors

• Chief Wellness Officer at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Scie…
• Assistant Dean for Faculty Vitality at NJMS (2016)
• Interim Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at NJMS