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Psychological distress, burnout level and job satisfaction in emergency medicine: A cross‐sectional study of physicians in C hina
Author(s) -
Xiao Yunbei,
Wang Jinguo,
Chen Si,
Wu Zhigang,
Cai Jian,
Weng Zhiliang,
Li Chengdi,
Zhang Xiaowei
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
emergency medicine australasia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.602
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1742-6723
pISSN - 1742-6731
DOI - 10.1111/1742-6723.12315
Subject(s) - medicine , burnout , job satisfaction , psychological distress , cross sectional study , anxiety , population , emergency department , depression (economics) , distress , clinical psychology , psychiatry , psychology , social psychology , environmental health , pathology , economics , macroeconomics
Background C hinese physicians are not only facing heavy work overloads, but also abuse and injury because of patient mistrust of physicians. The primary objective of the present study was to measure psychological distress, burnout levels and job satisfaction among C hinese emergency physicians. Methods All the physicians from the ED s of three large general hospitals were recruited to undertake a questionnaire‐based survey from M arch to A pril 2012. The H ospital A nxiety and D epression S cale ( HADS ), M aslach B urnout I nventory‐ G eneral S urvey and M innesota S atisfaction Q uestionnaire were used. Correlations between job satisfaction and psychological distress and burnout were calculated using the Pearson correlation. An outcome was considered statistically significant if P < 0.05. Results Completed questionnaires were received from 205 (82.0%) physicians. The mean HADS anxiety subscale scores for the ED physicians and general population were 7.8 ± 3.4 and 4.7 ± 3.5, respectively ( t = 1.526, P < 0.05). Additionally, the mean HADS depression subscale scores were 7.9 ± 3.6 and 4.7 ± 3.9, respectively ( t = 1.567, P < 0.05). Fifty‐two (25.4%) exhibited high levels of career burnout. All aspects of job satisfaction were significantly lower in the ED physicians compared with a previous report ( P < 0.05). Burnout was significantly negatively correlated with intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction in the sampled population. Conclusion Psychological distress is prevalent in this group of ED physicians, and it deserves attention from the whole society. Burnout and job satisfaction among ED physicians are at a ‘moderate’ level. Burnout is negatively associated with higher job satisfaction.