Physicians’ Occupational Stress: Factors and Teaching Adaptability at Medical Schools

Abstract

In medicine, extreme conditions and occupational stress are caused by a high level of responsibility, constant tension, heavy workload, complex relationships with patients and colleagues, etc. Therefore, it is important to preserve the physical and mental health of medical workers in order to increase their adaptability and resistance to extreme factors and everyday stress. To improve the quality of health care, it is important not only to establish stress factors, but also to increase adaptability and stress resistance. The research objective was to outline possibilities for increasing adaptability in medical students based on the analysis of factors of professional stress in medical practitioners. Stress factors include time restrictions, gap between salary and labor effort, physical exhaustion, emotionally unbalanced patients, night shifts, high work rates, high level of responsibility for the life and health of other people, inability to think about anything else but work, and high demands that patients place on medical workers. The study revealed dependence between adaptability and stress tolerance in medical doctors. Age and work experience did not correlate with the level of organizational stress and adaptability. The profile of medical activity and position was found to affect these indicators to a greater extent than age. Specific stressors appeared at any age and career stage, but some practitioners were more vulnerable. 90 % of medical students already demonstrated a high level of organizational stress. Thus, although most of the stressors are unavoidable, it is still possible to outline some ways to increase the stress resistance and adaptability in medical students by developing their professional competencies.