According to a study by the Medical Association, one in four young doctors experience serious symptoms of burnout, and 55.3% are at risk of developing this syndrome.
The same study, specifically targeting prisoners, reported that 35.5% of them began receiving psychological or psychiatric support during their internship.
According to a study carried out by the National Council of Internal Medicine (CNMI) released this Monday.
The study, which was conducted between August and September 2023 and received 1,737 responses (16.9% response rate), aimed to assess burnout among prisoners and its relationship with socio-occupational variables.
Compared to the last study in 2016, interns had more than three times the prevalence of severe burnout (24.7%) than other physicians (7%) and also had higher rates in line with the study averages. conducted in other countries (22.9%).
“Trainee doctors who have trained for a longer period of time, perceive their work-life relationships to be more unbalanced, have less autonomy at work and work more overtime have higher levels of burnout,” the study highlights.
The percentage of prisoners who are fully engaged in their work is only 5.3%, which is about four times lower than in other countries.
Only 16.5% consider the relationship between personal and professional life to be balanced.
A higher percentage of doctors with symptoms of burnout is observed in the Northern region (28.6%), followed by Lisbon and Vale do Tejo (23.7%) and Centro (22.1%).
The highest rate is observed in the specialty of Anesthesiology (32.4%), followed by general surgery (29.7%), internal medicine (28.9%), intensive care medicine (26.2%) and gynecology/obstetrics ( 22.2%).
According to the study, 84.8% of respondents work overtime, with the average weekly work hours being 52.8 hours, which is equivalent to approximately 2.5 months of overtime work per year.
More than half (55.1%) work monthly shifts of more than 12 hours, 62.1% work night shifts, and 55.9% have two or fewer days off per month.
High workload associated with independent work and study, as well as meeting educational goals, was the main theme identified in the survey question about working conditions.
Speaking to Lusa, CNMI President José Durao called the results of this first national study “very alarming”.
“We knew there were many prisoners whose mental health was at risk, and many of them were already having to see a psychologist or psychiatrist or even medication, resulting in long hours of work and few hours of sleep,” he said.
However, “we did not expect to find that almost 25% (…) experience severe burnout.”
When asked whether this situation was related to the work of emergency services, José Durao replied that this would be “one of the explanations,” but considered that the problem was “multifactorial.”
“We are talking about several situations, in several specialties, in several regions, and therefore it is difficult to indicate a single reason,” but, he noted, “it is no coincidence that the highest levels of burnout are identified in hospital specialties, namely medicine and surgery, with even greater urgency load.”
Jose Durao noted that some people work “two, three 24-hour emergency shifts in one week, which is not only illegal and not included in their training programs, but obviously any reasonable person understands that this cannot be useful for people’s mental health.”
“We are talking about the generation that will replace older doctors who will leave in the coming years. Under what conditions will these people reach the beginning of their careers and with what desire will they continue to work primarily in the National Service?, where conditions are even worse and which make it easier similar situations. Therefore, this is very, very serious,” he complained.
The CNMI advocated the creation of protected work time for independent study, the need to review and standardize the evaluation system for medical internships, the promotion of increased value of clinical skills, and the optimization of psychological and/or psychiatric support for interns in all educational institutions.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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