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Sources of work-related psychological distress experienced by UK-wide foundation and junior doctors: a qualitative study

OBJECTIVES: This paper reports findings exploring work cultures, contexts and conditions associated with psychological distress in foundation and junior doctors. DESIGN: Qualitative study using in-depth interviews with 21 junior doctor participants. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, a...

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Autores principales: Riley, Ruth, Buszewicz, Marta, Kokab, Farina, Teoh, Kevin, Gopfert, Anya, Taylor, Anna K, Van Hove, Maria, Martin, James, Appleby, Louis, Chew-Graham, Carolyn
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8231022/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34162634
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043521
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author Riley, Ruth
Buszewicz, Marta
Kokab, Farina
Teoh, Kevin
Gopfert, Anya
Taylor, Anna K
Van Hove, Maria
Martin, James
Appleby, Louis
Chew-Graham, Carolyn
author_facet Riley, Ruth
Buszewicz, Marta
Kokab, Farina
Teoh, Kevin
Gopfert, Anya
Taylor, Anna K
Van Hove, Maria
Martin, James
Appleby, Louis
Chew-Graham, Carolyn
author_sort Riley, Ruth
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: This paper reports findings exploring work cultures, contexts and conditions associated with psychological distress in foundation and junior doctors. DESIGN: Qualitative study using in-depth interviews with 21 junior doctor participants. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, anonymised and imported into NVivo V.11 to facilitate data management. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis employing the constant comparative method. SETTING: NHS in England. PARTICIPANTS: A purposive sample of 16 female and five male junior doctor junior doctor participants who self-identified as having stress, distress, anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts, or having attempted to kill themselves. RESULTS: Analysis reported four key themes: (1) workload and working conditions; (2) toxic work cultures—including abuse and bullying, sexism and racism, culture of blaming and shaming; (3) lack of support; (4) stigma and a perceived need to appear invulnerable. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the need for future solutions and interventions targeted at improving work cultures and conditions. There needs to be greater recognition of the components and cumulative effects of potentially toxic workplaces and stressors intrinsic to the work of junior doctors, such as the stress of managing high workloads and lack of access to clinical and emotional support. A cultural shift is needed within medicine to more supportive and compassionate leadership and work environments, and a zero-tolerance approach to bullying, harassment and discrimination.
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spelling pubmed-82310222021-07-09 Sources of work-related psychological distress experienced by UK-wide foundation and junior doctors: a qualitative study Riley, Ruth Buszewicz, Marta Kokab, Farina Teoh, Kevin Gopfert, Anya Taylor, Anna K Van Hove, Maria Martin, James Appleby, Louis Chew-Graham, Carolyn BMJ Open Mental Health OBJECTIVES: This paper reports findings exploring work cultures, contexts and conditions associated with psychological distress in foundation and junior doctors. DESIGN: Qualitative study using in-depth interviews with 21 junior doctor participants. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, anonymised and imported into NVivo V.11 to facilitate data management. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis employing the constant comparative method. SETTING: NHS in England. PARTICIPANTS: A purposive sample of 16 female and five male junior doctor junior doctor participants who self-identified as having stress, distress, anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts, or having attempted to kill themselves. RESULTS: Analysis reported four key themes: (1) workload and working conditions; (2) toxic work cultures—including abuse and bullying, sexism and racism, culture of blaming and shaming; (3) lack of support; (4) stigma and a perceived need to appear invulnerable. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the need for future solutions and interventions targeted at improving work cultures and conditions. There needs to be greater recognition of the components and cumulative effects of potentially toxic workplaces and stressors intrinsic to the work of junior doctors, such as the stress of managing high workloads and lack of access to clinical and emotional support. A cultural shift is needed within medicine to more supportive and compassionate leadership and work environments, and a zero-tolerance approach to bullying, harassment and discrimination. BMJ Publishing Group 2021-06-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8231022/ /pubmed/34162634 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043521 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Mental Health
Riley, Ruth
Buszewicz, Marta
Kokab, Farina
Teoh, Kevin
Gopfert, Anya
Taylor, Anna K
Van Hove, Maria
Martin, James
Appleby, Louis
Chew-Graham, Carolyn
Sources of work-related psychological distress experienced by UK-wide foundation and junior doctors: a qualitative study
title Sources of work-related psychological distress experienced by UK-wide foundation and junior doctors: a qualitative study
title_full Sources of work-related psychological distress experienced by UK-wide foundation and junior doctors: a qualitative study
title_fullStr Sources of work-related psychological distress experienced by UK-wide foundation and junior doctors: a qualitative study
title_full_unstemmed Sources of work-related psychological distress experienced by UK-wide foundation and junior doctors: a qualitative study
title_short Sources of work-related psychological distress experienced by UK-wide foundation and junior doctors: a qualitative study
title_sort sources of work-related psychological distress experienced by uk-wide foundation and junior doctors: a qualitative study
topic Mental Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8231022/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34162634
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043521
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