So just out of curiousity, how would you modify these risks? None of the things you specifically mentioned have easy solutions. Make it illegal for physicians to own guns? Or drink alcohol? Eliminate brief and sudden life events? Slip prozac in all the ancillary staff's water supply?
I think
@IlDestriero's point was that medicine is inherently a stressful field, and it may not be realistic to expect the suicide rate to ever be in line with the national average. Same with other fields (law enforcement, air traffic controllers, etc). I mean, look how much medicine has changed in the last 20 years. Work hours are way down, medicine is overall nicer (less overt behavioral disorders), wider recognition and acceptance of mental health issues (though obviously not perfect), salaries are still high (though not as high as previous, maybe). And has the suicide rate gone down? I honestly don't know but doubt it has meaningfully decreased.
The best things we can do right now are education and recognizing at-risk individuals and getting them help, but it's an imperfect system. I think you are far more likely to have success modifying the personal risk factors than the system ones. Going somewhere you have a support system, making good financial decisions, learning how to play well with others, exercising and eating well. You actually have a shot at pulling those off, compared to making all the nurses helpful and friendly, or decreasing the amount of bureaucracy to go through to discharge a patient, or making patients more appreciative.
One systems thing I would like to see change is more administrative-level recognition of the issue. My residency hospital has had at least 2 residents commit suicide in the past 5 years, 1 in the department. And it may be my department specifically (but I suspect other departments as well) give off the general vibe of "if we don't talk about it, people will just forget about it and move on." I get that no one wants to advertise that there was a suicide in their department. It looks bad for the hospital to the public and to future applicants. But pretending like it never happened isn't going to solve the issue, either, and is bad for morale.