1300 Working conditions in german hospitals- prevention for young physicians and nursing staff in germany

Abstract

Background The implementation of the Diagnose Related Groups-System in Germany has led to substantial work intensification over the years. Due to these structural changes a high dissatisfaction with work and early exit from work especially for nursing staff has been observed in studies. Also physicians working in hospitals complain about their working conditions characterised by not documented overtime, personnel shortage, missing breaks and a perceived lower care quality. With respect to these working conditions, the demographic development of patients and health care workers, young health care workers today are the future potential of the capacity of German hospitals. The following research investigates the working conditions of young physicians and nurses in a joint context. The aim of this study is to detect specific needs for improvement with respect to the collaboration of the two job groups. Methods The statutory accident insurance of health care workers in Germany (BGW) has the statutory obligation to prevent work- related diseases. In collaboration with two unions and several medical and nursing societies the BGW is performing a large representative survey in September 2017. The study population are young physicians and nurses (≤35 years) working in German hospitals. Access to the field will be attained by the different databases of the union and society members. A randomised sample of 8000 young health care workers will get access to the web-based survey via email. The questionnaire will assess different work-related aspects with the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSQ). Other psychosocial factors will be assessed with the Effort-Reward-Imbalance-Questionnaire (ERI). Especially aspects of collaboration of the two job groups and specific needs for improvement that are asked in the questionnaire, will give essential information to build up new strategies to enhance work satisfaction of young health care workers.