Health Professional Wellbeing

An American survey of over 1,300 doctors has found approximately one-third reported serious problems with their profession inlcuding stress and isolation. The study, published in Medical Care last month, revealed that 17% of the phsycians surveyed reported feeling isolated, 31% reported problems with stress, and 27% of the physicians reported feeling dissatisfied with their profession. The study also found a correlation between the quality of care the doctor’s patients received and decreased stress in the doctors.

The study can be found at Medical Care.

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A Zambian study exploring the health care worker shortage found that stress was attributed to over 20 per cent of attrition. The study, which surveyed 483 active clinical staff, found poor pay was attributed for 40% of co-worker attrition, ahead of stress at 21%. The major risk factors for burnout were also examined, with the two largest factors found to be having another job and knowing a co-worker who left within the last year. The study recommended the implementation of programs to reduce workplace stress in order to improve workforce stability.

The full study can be found at www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov.

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A survey examining stress in the health system found overwork is the leading cause of stress in health and social care staff. The survey, published in Haymarket’s Human Resource magazine, also found that the second largest cause of stress in the staff was poorly managed change within the organisation.

The survey also found that only 3% of health and social care staff describe stress as not a problem, in contrast to a third of staff from all other sectors.

More information about the survey can be found at www.healthcarerepublic.com.

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Overseas studies estimate that up to 40% of patients presenting to general medical practitioners are psychologically distressed. In the US it has been estimated that 50–70% of general practice consultations feature stress related issues. Medical practitioners, especially GPs, are the first point of contact for most people who are psychologically distressed.

Dr Ramesh Manocha.

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An observational study of general practitioners in the Netherlands found that stress is associated with insufficient practice management. The study collected data from 239 practices and also found an association between stress and the decreased accessibility for patients to the GP. Interestingly, the study also found that GPs who experience less stress are perceived as providing better care by their patients.

The study can be found at www.biomedcentral.com.

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An Australian study by Peisah et al. (2008) has found that older and more experienced doctors report lower psychological distress and burnout then younger doctors. The study, examining 158 doctors recruited from St George Hospital in Sydney, found that both age and experience were associated with lower scores on the Maslach Burnout Inventory and Kesler 10 Psychological Distress Scale. The older doctors attributed their reduced stress and burnout to lessons learned through their careers.

From Aging and Mental Health.

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A 5 year longitudinal study by Bakker et al. (2000) examined a suggested process model for burnout in general practitioners. The study found support for their model of burnout which proposed demanding patients cause GPs to use depersonalisation as a coping method, which leads to emotional exhaustion and burnout.

The study examined 207 GPs, and also found that GPs who attempt to cope with depersonalisation appeared to cause patients to react with increased demanding and threatening behaviour.

The study can be found at Wiley InterScience.

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The following is the conclusion of a study by Dr Manocha which compared the mental silence based meditation technique sahaja yoga to a relaxation response based technique.

This is the first RCT of meditation for occupational stress which clearly demonstrates a specific effect in comparison to a credible control (in this case an alternative definition of meditation) and suggests that sahaja yoga meditation, and possibly other forms of meditation that are directed at the experience of mental silence, has real potential as a health promotional strategy for managing the widespread problem of occupational stress.

More information on Dr Manocha’s research can be found at his blog.

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An Australian study of general practitioners has found practice principals are at a higher risk of being distressed. The observational study received questionnaire feedback from 819 GPs and found practice principals and GPs aged between 35 to 49 were the most likely to be distressed. A total of 28% of the total GPs surveyed scored above the GHQ-12 threshhold indicating psychological distress.

The study can be found at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

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An American study presented in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences has found a significant correlation between stress and cellular aging.

The study compared mothers of children suffering from chronic illnesses to mothers of healthy children, controlling for age, BMI, smoking and vitamin intake. The mothers with children with chronic illnesses were shown to have significantly higher levels of stress on both subjective and objective measures. The study showed the mothers  who were suffering from greater stress had shorter telomeres, lower telomere activity, and higher oxidative stress, all of which have been shown to correlate with cellular aging.

The study demonstrated an enormous magnitude of effect, approximating 9-17 years worth of additional cellular aging in the mothers with high levels of stress.

The study can be found at http://www.pnas.org.

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