Tag Archives: occupational stress

Assessment of Occupational Stress in Some Medical and Surgical Specialties

Ionita Alexandrina1, Copotoiu Monica2, Paşcan Cristina3, Copotoiu Sanda-Maria4

1 Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Tg. Mureş County Hospital
2 University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Tg.Mureş
3 University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Tg.Mureş
4 Psychologist, Emergency County Hospital

Background: In recent decades, attention was given increasingly to stress, especially to its secondary effects. Models were developed in response to stress to facilitate understanding of the pathology induced by stress. At the same time, methods to analyze the stress level by laboratory measurements or by means of questionnaires were favored.
Aim: To assess the incidence and the degree of the burn-out level in medics of different specialties.
Material and method: We ran a survey using a questionnaire to measure the level of burnout to the study group. We looked for correlations with coexisting factors, such as: age, addictions, time spent at work, on call time. Data were processed by Graph Pad Prism 5.
Results: The response rate was acceptable: 70 out of 80. We found a dominating medium degree of damage for the intensivists on poll position being the overall burnout. For the internists, there is no correlation between levels of training and fatigue factors, while the professional exhaustion is merely medium to low. The surgeons cope quite well, professional exhaustion being medium, significantly correlated with smoking. Couples face worse depersonalization when it comes to surgeons (p < 0.0048).
Conclusions: The occupational stress assessed by the Maslach questionnaire seems to be moderate to both anaesthetists and surgeons in the Tg. Mureş county hospital.

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Assessment of the Level of Burnout in Several Medical Fields by Studying the Diurnal Profile of Salivary Cortisol

Ioniță Alexandrina1, Copotoiu Monica2, Hutan Adina3, Copotoiu Ruxandra4

1 Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, County Hospital, Tîrgu Mureș, Romania
2 Clinic of Rheumatology, Emergency County Hospital, Tîrgu Mureș, Romania
3 University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Tîrgu Mureș, Romania
4 Clinic of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Emergency County Hospital, Tîrgu Mureș, Romania

Background: Occupational stress afflicts not only job performance, but also the physical status and the health of the working human being. Thus, methods to analyze the level of stress and burnout by laboratory measurements and different types of questionnaires were developed during the last years.
Aim: To determine the relationship between salivary cortisol variations and the individual self evaluation performed by physicians in several medical fields: general surgery, intensive care, internal medicine.
Material and method: A self assessment survey was undertaken by physicians in three specialties, investigating the place doctors find themselves in the collectivity, their integration and interpersonal relationships – all contributing to a burn-out potential inventory score, the BPI. The BPI score was correlated with the cortisol level found in 3 samples of saliva collected at awakening, immediately after the maximum stress of the day and at night, before sleeping.
Results: We found significant variations of the cortisol level between the early morning salivary level at awakening and the climax of the stress. There was a linear correlation between the maximal cortisol level and the BPI score.
Conclusion: Salivary cortisol, well correlated with serum levels is a consistent marker of the stress and the intensity of the reactivity to stress. Thus we promote it as a feasible, accessible and low cost measurement of the reactivity to stress, both for the individual and the professional group.

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Risk of Addiction and Burnout

Copotoiu Monica1, Ioniță Alexandrina2, Copotoiu Ruxandra3, Copotoiu Sanda-Maria3

1 Clinic of Rheumatology, Emergency County Hospital, Tîrgu Mureș, Romania
2 Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Emergency County Hospital, Tîrgu Mureș, Romania
3 Clinic of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Emergency County Hospital, Tîrgu Mureș, Romania

Background: A significant problem in medical practice is represented by addiction to chemical substances and frequently to alcohol. The impact of addiction to alcohol in medical professions is similar to others, although there are slightly different circumstances.
Aim: To compare the rate of dependence to different substances in several medical specialties.
Material and method: We ran a survey based on a questionnaire to assess the level of burnout in connection to the habit of using chronic medication, coffee, alcohol and tobacco. The respondents were our colleagues, 70 doctors of different backgrounds: 28 anaesthesiologists, 27 general surgeons and urologists, 15 gastroenterologists and internists, but also emergency physicians. Data were processed with Graph Pad Prism 5.0.
Results: We found a moderate risk of burnout both in anaesthesiologists and surgeons. Anaesthetists tended to use chronic medication more then their colleagues (20%). As for alcohol use, the surgeons seemed to be placed in pole position (22.22%). The internists styled themselves as no chronic users whatever the item investigated.
Conclusions: Alcohol use and chronic medication were associated frequently to burnout. It is important to clarify if the dependence is a reaction to occupational stress to certain individuals or not. Due to the limited number of respondents, our results do not entitle us to take them as a model.

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