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The importance of work-home interface stress can vary throughout a medical career and between genders. We studied changes in work-home interface stress over 5 yr, and their prediction of emotional exhaustion (main dimension of burn-out), controlled for other variables. A nationwide doctor cohort (NORDOC; n=293) completed questionnaires at 10 and 15 yr after graduation. Changes over the period were examined and predictors of emotional exhaustion analyzed using linear regression. Levels of work-home interface stress declined, whereas emotional exhaustion stayed on the same level. Lack of reduction in work-home interface stress was an independent predictor of emotional exhaustion in year 15 (β=-0.21, p=0.001). Additional independent predictors were reduction in support from colleagues (β=0.11, p=0.04) and emotional exhaustion at baseline (β=0.62, p<0.001). Collegial support was a more important predictor for men than for women. In separate analyses, significant adjusted predictors were lack of reduction in work-home interface stress among women, and reduction of collegial support and lack of reduction in working hours among men. Thus, change in work-home interface stress is a key independent predictor of emotional exhaustion among doctors 15 yr after graduation. Some gender differences in predictors of emotional exhaustion were found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate whether being the child of a physician would be of importance for how young physicians experience job stress.Method: In a national representative prospective and longitudinal study with five assessment points (NORDOC), young physicians were followed over twenty year after graduation from medical school.Results: Female physicians with a physician parent reported higher levels of job stress over the whole period compared with males with a physician parent. This gender difference did not occur within the group without a physician parent. Male young physicians showed a trend (not quite significant) to be less stressed than their peers without a physician parent. Women physicians were overrepresented in a group with persisting high stress level over the period.Conclusions: Male physicians with physician parent reporting lower stress levels than their female peers can be interpreted as a consequence of male physicians having more male models during their first working years as the main proportion of older physicians still are men. A father-son relationship may also promote an easier way to lower stress and achieve an identification with the role of doctor than for the females with a father-daughter relationship. With the increasing number of female physician, this gender difference may be prone to changes over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: Burnout among nurses is an issue of concern, and preventive interventions are important to implement and evaluate. This study investigated levels and predictors of change in burnout dimensions after an intervention for help-seeking nurses. Methods: Nurses participating in a self-referral, counseling intervention, from 2004 to 2006 in Norway, were followed with self-reporting assessments. One-year follow-up was completed by 160/172 (93%, 155 women and 5 men). Results: Mean level of emotional exhaustion (one dimension of burnout, scale 1–5) was significantly reduced from 2.87 (SD 0.79) to 2.52 (SD 0.8), t =5.3, p <0.001, to the level found in a representative sample of Norwegian nurses. The proportion of nurses seeking psychotherapy increased after the intervention, from 17.0% (25/147) to 34% (50/147), p <0.001. Less reduction in emotional exhaustion was independently predicted by reporting a work-related conflict (β −0.53 (SE 0.13), p <0.001) or by getting a period of sick leave (β −0.28 (SE 0.12), p <0.05) after the intervention. Conclusions: A short-term preventive intervention could contribute to reduction of emotional exhaustion in nurses. Work-related conflict and sick leave after the intervention were negatively associated with this reduction. Practice implications: Preventive interventions to reduce burnout for nurses should be considered, as well as programs for preventing or handling conflicts at work. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Knowledge about important factors in reduction of burnout is needed, but there is a dearth of burnout intervention program studies and their effects among physicians. The present three-year follow-up study aimed to investigate the roles of coping strategies, job stress and personality traits in burnout reduction after a counselling intervention for distressed physicians.Methods: 227 physicians who attended a counselling intervention for burnout at the Resource Centre Villa Sana, Norway in 2003-2005, were followed with self-report assessments at baseline, one-year, and three-year follow-up. Main outcome measures were emotional exhaustion (one dimension of burnout), job stress, coping strategies and neuroticism. Changes in these measures were analyzed with repeated measures ANOVA. Temporal relationships between changes were examined using structural modelling with cross-lagged and synchronous panel models.Results: 184 physicians (81%, 83 men, 101 women) completed the three-year follow-up assessment. Significantly reduced levels of emotional exhaustion, job stress, and emotion-focused coping strategies from baseline to one year after the intervention, were maintained at three-year follow-up.Panel modelling indicated that changes in emotion-focused coping (z = 4.05, p < 0.001) and job stress (z = 3.16, p < 0.01) preceded changes in emotional exhaustion from baseline to three-year follow-up. A similar pattern was found from baseline to one-year follow-up.Conclusion: A sequential relationship indicated that reduction in emotion-focused coping and in job stress preceded reduction in emotional exhaustion. As a consequence, coping strategies and job stress could be important foci in intervention programs that aim to reduce or prevent burnout in help-seeking physicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which explores the course of, and predictors of job stress in young physicians. Results of the analysis show that stress relating to the work-home interference increased during the observation period for both genders and that neuroticism, conscientiousness, and lack of support from one's partner and colleagues are predictors of job stress.

Background: Doctors have a relatively high degree of emotional distress, but seek help to a lesser degree and at a later stage than other academic groups. This can be deleterious for themselves and for their patients. Prevention programs have therefore been developed but it is unclear to what extent they reach doctors in need of help. This study describes doctors who participated in a self-referral, easily accessible, stress relieving, counselling program in Norway, and compares them with a nationwide sample of Norwegian doctors. Methods: Two hundred and twenty seven (94%) of the doctors, 117 women and 110 men, who came to the resort centre Villa Sana, Modum, Norway, between August 2003 and July 2005, agreed to participate in the study. Socio-demographic data, reasons for and ways of help-seeking, sick-leave, symptoms of depression and anxiety, job stress and burnout were assessed by self-reporting questionnaires. Results: Forty-nine percent of the Sana doctors were emotionally exhausted (Maslach) compared with 25% of all Norwegian doctors. However, they did not differ on empathy and working capacity, the other two dimensions in Maslach's burnout inventory. Seventy-three percent of the Sana doctors could be in need of treatment for depression or anxiety based on their symptom distress scores, compared with 14% of men and 18% of women doctors in Norway. Twenty-one percent of the Sana doctors had a history of suicidal thoughts, including how to commit the act, as compared to 10% of Norwegian doctors in general. Conclusion: Sana doctors displayed a higher degree of emotional exhaustion, symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as job related stress, compared with all Norwegian doctors. This may indicate that the program at Villa Sana to a large extent reaches doctors in need of help. The counselling intervention can help doctors to evaluate their professional and private situation, and, when necessary, enhance motivation for seeking adequate treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]