Occupational Stress among Medical and Paramedical Staff in Tertiary Care Hospitals Based on Observational Study

Abstract

Background: Occupational stress is a common concern among employees, particularly those working in tertiary care hospitals. In Pakistan, both medical and paramedical staffs face many stressors because of their high job demand, dealing with multiple patients, excessive duty hours, and strict rules and regulations. The objective of the study was to measure occupational stress among the tertiary care hospital employees of the Lahore District using different demographic and workplace determinants.

Methods: It was a cross-sectional study. A total of 138 hospital employees recorded their responses, which included 71 medical staff/doctors and 67 paramedical staff members. Primary data was obtained through a detailed structured questionnaire based on the Likert scale with the stress level index ranging from 1-5.

Results: In terms of the six staff designations, stress index from top to bottom was observed in house officers/ internees (3.47), medical officers/ postgraduate trainees (3.04), technicians (2.74), consultants/ specialists (2.73), emergency/ ward assistants (2.61) and nurses (2.46). Among all the employees, the most significant factors leading to stress bottom-down were justice/ fairness (3.30), tasks and roles (3.14), management (3.03), environment/ working conditions (3.01), decision-making autonomy (2.84), work schedule (2.62) and profession/ job entitlement (1.63). Analysis of demographic characteristics showed that males (2.99) faced greater stress than females (2.64) and people of young age group (? 30 years) showed the highest stress value (3.01) than other age groups. It was observed that moderately experienced (5-10 years) employees were more prone to occupational stress (3.03) than other groups. Furthermore, the employees of public hospitals (3.13) bear more stress than those of private hospitals (2.67). On the basis of locality, the locals showed slightly higher stress values (2.89) as compared to non-locals (2.77).

Conclusion: The current study showed that occupational stress is a prevalent problem in hospitals, particularly among house officers and postgraduate residents. Several useful steps can be undertaken to improve the health and safety of hospital employees like alleviating duty hours, working in shifts, focusing on a single task, and motivating the employees in decision-making.