engleski

Differences in stress perceptions between physicians in surgical and non-surgical specialities

Aim: To investigate differences in stress perception between physicians in surgical and non-surgical specialties. Subjects and Methods: 212 physicians in surgical and 158 in non-surgical specialties anonymously and voluntarily completed the Occupational Stress Assessment Questionnaire in four Croatian clinics. Questions regarding stress were graded by the Likert Scale from 1 to 5 and due to factor analysis classified in six items: Work management, Public criticism, Shift work, Professional demands, Interpersonal relationship at workplace and Professional health hazards. Items were used as dependent variables in multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Results: Significant difference was found between surgical and non-surgical specialties on the combined dependent variables: F (6, 363)=11.6, P<0.001 ; Wilks Lambda=0.84. When the results for the dependent variables were considered separately, the only differences to reach significance, using a Bonferoni adjusted alpha level of 0.008 were: Professional health hazards: F (1, 368)=41.4, P<0.001, Public criticism: F (1, 368)=7.5, P=0.006 and Shift work F (1, 368)=33.7, P<0.001. Inspection of mean stress scores (M &#177; ; SD) confirms that surgical specialties, compared to non-surgical, have higher grades regarding professional health hazards (2.7 &#177; ; 0.9 vs. 2.1 &#177; ; 0.7), public criticism (3.4 &#177; ; 0.9 vs. 3.1 &#177; ; 0.9) and shift work (3.1 &#177; ; 1.1 vs. 2.4 &#177; ; 1.2). Conclusion: Physicians in surgical specialties perceive higher level of stress due to higher exposure to professional health hazards, public criticism and shift work.

stress; physicians; surgery

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