Occupational Stress and Coping Styles among Doctors: Role of Demographic and Environment Variables

Abstract

Stress has been regarded as an occupational hazard since mid-1950s. In fact, occupational stress has been cited as a significant health problem among most of the occupational groups. Numerous studies have explored work stress among health care personnel in many countries. This study is an attempt to examine the nature and levels of role stress experienced by doctors in government hospitals across gender, experience, specialization and geographical areas in India. An attempt has also been made to explore the various coping styles adopted by doctors to deal with workplace stress. The sample consists of 334 doctors working at the government hospitals. To attain the objectives of the study, psychometric instrument, Organizational Role Stress Scale (Pareek, 1983), and a semi-projective instrument, Role Pics (Pareek, Devi & Rosenzweig, 1968), were administered to the sample population to obtain data pertaining to role stress and coping styles. The findings of the study revealed that female doctors experience more stress than their male counterparts. On the basis of geographical areas, stress score for doctors in disturbed ambience is significantly higher than the doctors in peaceful ambience. In addition, there exists a difference in the nature and quantum of role stress among doctors belonging to various specializations and different experience groups. The results on the basis of ‘Role Pics’ revealed that the majority of doctors employed defensive mode of coping (avoidance coping), followed by impersistive coping style (approach coping).

Recovering from Critical Incidents: Evidence from Paramedic Performance

“…This indicates that while experience is beneficial the lowest impact of CIs is on younger workers. This is in contrast with prior research which has found younger doctors to be more likely to suffer from symptoms of stress and depression, although in that profession the reasons sometimes have to do with age-related differences in working conditions (Rashid and Talib 2015).…”

Doctors’ Job Satisfaction and Its Relationships With Doctor-Patient Relationship and Work-Family Conflict in China: A Structural Equation Modeling

“…Work and family life are the two most important domains in a person's life. Lack of balance between the two can lead to adverse consequences, such as psychological distress, 37,38 low morale, harm to well-being, and so forth. 39 According to the two-factor theory, family life plays a major role in personal life, which is a hygiene factor leading to job dissatisfaction.…”

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“…Unsurprisingly, physicians do not invariably react to all the different stressors in hospitals, with some physicians developing more psychological symptoms than others, [10,11] indicating an association between the stress response to a stressor (ie, perceived stress) and psychological distress. Moreover, this association has been typically modest in Chinese physicians, [12,13] suggesting that psychological distress is not solely the results of stress reactions, but is also determined to a large extent by individual dispositions, [14,15] coping styles, and other personal and social resources.…”