WORK RELATED STRESS AMONG MEDICAL RESIDENTS AT TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Introduction: Stress caused by work is a worldwide problem secondary to work nature and activities that may lead to recurrent absenteeism from work and work disabilities. Aim of Work: To assess the psychosocial work related stress and its impact on medical residents working at Menoufia tertiary healthcare hospitals. Materials and Methods: It is a cross sectional study conducted at three tertiary healthcare hospitals in Menoufia governorate. The study included 315 medical residents. Participants answered a structured interview questionnaire, Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) model was used to evaluate work stress and Middlesex Hospital questionnaire (MHQ) aiming at examining the psychological effects of occupational stress. Results: Work related stress was prevalent among 82.9% of the medical residents in the studied hospitals and 65.7% of them had high over commitment. Work stress was significantly associated with lower mean age, smoking, among those working in medical departments, with lower mean for working years, higher mean for working hours/day, taking more night shifts/ week and among those who did not take break during working hours. High over commitment was significantly associated with lower mean age, single females and non-smokers, junior and mid senior residents, working in medical departments, with lower working years, higher working hours/day, dealing with higher number of patients per day and with taking more night shifts/ week. Work stress was significantly associated with higher phobic anxiety and depression (p=0.027 and p= 0.004; respectively). Conclusion and Recommendations: Work related stress and overcommitment were prevalent among medical residents working at Menoufia tertiary care hospitals and associated with anxiety and depression. This association could be improved via implementing appropriate interventions to reduce stress, including training and practice modifications .at hospitals to help the health care workers to adapt to their work stress factors