Stress in UK intensive care unit doctors

Abstract

Nearly one in three ICU doctors appeared distressed (GHQ), and one in 10 depressed (SCL-D); this is no greater than that reported in other specialities. Perceived stressors reveal some key areas of concern for the employer and the specialty.

Occupational stress in palliative medicine, medical oncology and clinical oncology specialist registrars

“…4 National UK surveys have identified high levels of psychological distress among doctors with 29-44% suffering identifiable psychiatric morbidity and 12-18% suffering from depression. 5,6 This compares unfavourably with the average British worker (17.8% have some identifiable psychological problems 7 ) and the general British population (21% have some form of common mental disorder 8 ).…”

“…5,6 It included General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) 23 to assess psychological distress; Symptom Checklist for Depression (SCL-D) 24 to measure depression; questions about demographic information, and questions to measure job satisfaction, levels of support from training, and hours worked. Respondents also rated occupational stressors for frequency and stressfulness.…”

“…Respondents also rated occupational stressors for frequency and stressfulness. 5,6 The final part of the questionnaire comprised open-ended free-text questions which asked respondents to write about a recent stressful incident and then offer suggestions of ways to reduce levels of stress in their work.…”

Association of Work‐Related Factors with Psychosocial Job Stressors and Psychosomatic Symptoms among Japanese Pediatricians

“…These include working hours 5,15,16) , overtime 17) , frequency of on-call duties 18) and work-home interference 1,3,4,7,19) . A few studies reported that long working hours were not associated with perceived stress at work 20) or psychological morbidity [21][22][23] . Some studies have reported that the Demand-Control-Support (DCS) model 24,25) is an important predictor of psychological morbidity among physicians 17,[26][27][28] .…”

Burnout y factores estresantes en profesionales sanitarios de las unidades de cuidados intensivos

“…Así, diversos estudios realizados con personal de UCI coinciden en los principales factores estresantes: la sobrecarga y la falta de personal. Igualmente, estos estudios encuentran otros factores como la sobre-exigencia, el sentirse el responsable último de la evolución del paciente, la falta de tiempo libre, los confl ictos jerárquicos, la mala organización y los horarios (Coomber, et al, 2002;Macas, Kolciniene, Vetaite, Bilskiene y Mikalauskas, 2010). En cuanto al burnout, analizando los resultados de manera global vemos que los participantes de este trabajo muestran un nivel medio de Agotamiento, Despersonalización y Realización personal.…”