Understanding physician stress: The relationships among stressors, mindfulness, perceived stress and physical functioning

• Main Author: Farrow, Victoria A
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Subjects: clinical psychology; health care management; obstetrics; occupational psychology; physiological psychology
• ISBN: 132109616X; 9781321096163

Physician stress is a cause for concern, given the links between stress, physical and mental health problems, medical errors, and burnout. Although there is a large body of research regarding physician stress, few studies have used validated measures of perceived stress or controlled for a specific personality trait that is consistently linked to stress (i.e., neuroticism). The present study examined: four specific "stressors" (solo practice, average hours worked, perceived control in the medical setting, and subjective work-related stressors) as predictors of stress; mindfulness as a potential moderator of the stressor-perceived stress relationship; and whether perceived stress had an indirect effect on the relationship of stressors to physical functioning.
Five hundred physician members of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists were mailed a 6-page survey, which included demographic and workload questions, validated measures of perceived stress, neuroticism, mindfulness, and physical functioning, and measures of work control and subjective work-related stressors that have been previously used in studies on physician stress. The response rate was 57.9%.
Results indicated that solo practice setting, working more hours per week, perceived lack of control in the workplace, and higher reported experience of/impact from medicine-specific stressors (e.g., dealing with abusive patients; fearing that a mistake will be made in a patient's care) were each related to higher levels of perceived stress, and these individual relationships remained significant or approached significance after accounting for physicians' levels of neuroticism. Results also supported the hypothesis that perceived stress had an indirect effect on the relationship between each of the stressors and physicians' physical functioning. Finally, results did not support the hypothesis that mindfulness moderates the relationship of stressors to perceived stress.
The ob-gyns in the current sample had higher levels of perceived stress compared to 2009 US population norms. Physicians themselves should remain aware of the factors that contribute to their stress and whether any of those factors may be adjusted. Self-care and stress management techniques should be encouraged in this population. Policy-makers and researchers may wish to examine systematic ways of reducing physician stress and the broader effects of physician stress on public health costs.