Abstract
AimsMedical doctors are affected by high levels of occupational burnout. Work organization such as sufficient rest breaks can decrease stress and fatigue; however, rest breaks are often skipped under high workload and time pressure. The present study sought to investigate the effect of self-determined rest breaks on acute and daily levels of fatigue in physicians of the General Hospital of Vienna.MethodsRest breaks and fatigue were recorded throughout day shifts over a time span of 4 weeks with a mobile assessment device. A total of 12 physicians of a university clinic participated in the study. Data were analyzed using generalized estimating equations.ResultsAnalyses were based on a total of 115 workdays including 93 rest breaks and 800 fatigue assessments. Physicians took an average of 0.81 rest breaks per day. Fatigue was lower in the 30 min after the break than in the hour before the break; however, the number of rest breaks did not affect the increase of fatigue during shifts.ConclusionSelf-determined rest breaks were effective in reducing acute fatigue in hospital physicians during work. The failure to find an effect on the increase of work-related fatigue may be due to the infrequency of rest breaks in hospital physicians.
Highlights
Physicians are faced with high levels of burnout, a syndrome primarily based on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization [1]
It can be assumed that rest breaks prevent the build-up of acute fatigue and reduce the risk of exhaustion on the original article long run, despite the fact that fatigue and burnout are overlapping, but not identical conditions [16, 17]
We assumed that subjective fatigue would be lower after a rest break than prior to a rest break, subjective fatigue would increase over the workday, and that the increase of fatigue over a working day would be negatively related with the number of rest breaks taken during that day
Summary
The average number of observation days (i.e. workdays) per person was 9.6 days (SD 4.5 days, range 2–16), the number of fatigue assessments was 66.7 assessments (SD 33.3 assessments, range 15–120). An average of 0.81 rest breaks (SD 1.0) per day was observed, with a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 5 breaks. A near significant difference to the pre-break level was found for fatigue 31–60 min after the break (B = –0.42, SE = 0.23, p =0.076; d = 0.23), whereas 60–90min after the break levels of fatigue did not differ from the pre-break level (B = –0.15, SE = 0.33, p =0.65). The overall effect of rest break variation
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