Health And General Life Care: {Events Updates} Working Hours of Postgraduate trainees, Stress and Maladaptive coping strategies

{Events Updates} Working Hours of Postgraduate trainees, Stress and Maladaptive coping strategies

Saturday, 12 January 2008

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Dear Friends/Colleagues,
We would like to share our work on the working hours of postgraduate
trainees, stress and maladaptive coping strategies and invite
comments/suggestions on the issue.

The detailed paper can be found at the JAMC website:
http://www.ayubmed.edu.pk/JAMC/

Background:
The growing debate regarding long working hours of postgraduate
trainees has been receiving considerable attention recently. This
greater workload contributes to increasing stress.
Our objective was to specifically study the association between long
working hours, stress and the greater use of â€˜maladaptiveâ€™ coping
strategies.

Methods :
A cross-sectional descriptive study was
carried out on all interns and residents at the Aga Khan University
Hospital during February to May, 2005. Level of stress was measured by
use of General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and the use of
maladaptive coping mechanisms through Brief Cope-28.

Results:
55.1 % scored over the threshold for mild stress i.e. GHQ > 3, while
more than 46% of the trainees scored over the threshold of more than 4
for morbid stress. Trainees under stress reported more working hours
on average as compared to those not under stress, 83.8 and 74.7 hours
respectively. At the same time, those working for longer hours were
more likely to have used these negative coping mechanisms, which would
further contribute to more stress rather than relieving it.

Conclusions:
Significant levels of stress have been identified. Along with this,
those working for longer hours were more likely to have used these
negative coping mechanisms. Reduction of working hours is important.
Simultaneously, interventions need to be planned at imparting
knowledge, awareness and skills to cope with various kinds of
stressors encountered by a trainee during his/her training.
Additionally, limits need to be devised for the working hours of the
trainees.

Good Wishes,
Pashtoon Murtaza Kasi, Talha Khawar, Farooq Hasan Khan, Jawad
Ghazanfar Kiani, Umber Zaheer Khan, Hadi Mohammad Khan, Urooj Bakht
Khuwaja, Musa Rahim