PGI docs battling high stress, on verge of burnout: Study

CHANDIGARH: Work overload has raised stress among resident doctors in PGI beyond normal levels that could result in burnout, a study has found.The study, “Comparison of stress and burnout among anaesthesia and surgical residents in a tertiary care teaching hospital in North India“, was recently published in the current issue of Journal of Postgraduate Medicine and authored by Dr K Gandhi, Dr N Sahni, Dr S K Padhy and Dr P J Mathew, all from PGI.It was undertaken to emphasise the need to develop protocols to support resident doctors and not let their stress progress to depression later in their career.The study has considered 200 resident doctors from anaesthesia and surgery depart ments. As many as 21% doctors in surgical branches and 23% in anaesthesia felt they would like to do another job where they could develop their talents better, the study said. Various surgical branches, including general surgery , otorhinolaryngology, orthopaedics, obstetrics, and gynaecology , took part in the study conducted over a period of three months. For perceived stress scale (PSS)10, a score of 13 is considered average and that of 20 or higher, high level of stress. Doctors of both surgical and anaesthesia branches scored high in perceived stress, 21 and 18, respectively.
The stress levels show an increasing trend with each year of residency. Doctors doing first year of residency in surgical branches had a median PSS of 19 compared to 16.5 in first-year anaesthesia residents. Second-year residents in surgical branches and anaesthesia had a median PSS of 21.5 and 20, re spectively. Final-year residents in surgical branches had a median PSS of 21 as compared to 19 in final year anaesthesia residents.
The level of stress was also higher in residents in surgical specialties than anaesthesia residents. A probable reason could be the anaesthetic residents are relieved of their clinical duties for 24 hours after a 12 hour night duty, whereas surgical residents are not.
The study mentioned, “Certain level of stress may be considered desirable for training and improved performance, but continuous chronic stress may predispose these young doctors to burnout syndrome. This is detrimental for the residents themselves and also for the greater patient population they treat.“ The hospital sees a footfall of 8,000 patients daily in the OPD.