Restoring dignity and respect to health care workers

Abstract

Introduction. This year, the World Health Organization focuses on restoring dignity and respect to health care workers. The aim of this study was to investigate the workplace stressors in physicians. Material and Methods. The present study was performed in the period 2002-2004, among physicians treated in the Health Center Novi Sad. The examinees were asked to fill out a questionnaire - a workplace survey - to identify workplace stressors by using a self-evaluation method. The physicians were divided into three groups: those practicing surgery (S), internal medicine (IM) and preventive-diagnostics (PD). Statistical analysis was done using SPSS and STATISTICA software. The sample included 208 physicians with an average age of 40 years (SD=7,1); average work experience of 22 years (SD=8,1). Results. 65 physicians from group S and 108 physicians from group IM, identified the following workplace stressors: treating patients in life-threatening situations (47.7%, 30.6%, respectfully); on-call duty (13.8%, 12%); low salary (10.8%, 10.2%); limited diagnostic and therapeutic resources in the IM group. 35 physicians from the DP group identified the following stressors: low salary (25%), treating patients in life-threatening situations and a great number of patients (16%). The analysis of all examined physicians revealed the following workplace stressors: treating patients in life-threatening situations (34.6%), low salary (13%), on-call duty and overtime, and too many patients per physician (11.5%). Conclusion. Restoring the reputation of health workers can be done by providing new equipment to resolve life-threatening situations, by increasing salaries, reducing on-call time, as well as the number of patients. Generally speaking, this should help to improve the quality of work in the health care system, in accordance with the recommendations of the WHO. .