Occupational stress, personal strain, and coping among residents and faculty members

A qualitative study of how doctors use impression management when they talk about stress in the UK

“…There is a wealth of evidence that indicates that junior doctors are likely to experience heightened levels of stress. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Despite this participants consistently normalised, deflected or trivialised their own experiences of stress which is consistent with other studies that indicate a reluctance by doctors to discuss their own stress. 11,16,17 Within the medical education setting a consistent pattern of emergent stress discourses were identified that were displayed through three interpretive repertoires; busyness, patient responsibility and good doctor.…”

“…35 The busyness interpretative repertoire of stress was characterised as working demands and intensity and reflects our historical perception of the demanding junior doctor role often reported. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Discursively this has also been found in female clerical workers. 32 This repertoire could serve as a gate-keeper for discussing stress; as usage of these discourses limits a potential discussion to a level of simply reflecting on environmental issues, which is often the case.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] The volume of studies designed to measure stress levels is in contrast to the lack of studies that describe validated interventions designed to address doctors' stress. The 'medical culture' and doctors' own expectations further contribute to the difficulty in managing stress.…”

Measures of Physician Mental Workload

“…The demands of residency training are well recognized (Resident Services Committee, 1988). Practicing physicians' work demands are more difficult to document but have been noted to some extent (Alexander, Monk, and Jonas 1 985;Mawardi, 1979).…”

The Indigestible Curriculum

“…Suggestions offered by a number of educators and students include the follow¬ ing: (1) counseling programs and "support groups" for troubled students and physicians; (2) the addition of humanities and ethics curricula and required community service programs to all phases of the medical curriculum; (3) encouragement of premedicai students to include humanities courses in their un¬ dergraduate curriculum; (4) fostering of faculty and student social meetings during medical school; and (5) repeated emphasis on teaching the "human" ele¬ ment in clinical medicine at the same time that one is discussing the technical aspects of patient care. No simple solution exists for such a difficult, complex dilemma.…”