Occupational health risks for doctors in contemporary public healthcare systems (review)

Abstract

Doctors’ health is seen as a sign that a public healthcare system is efficient. Authors of the present work aimed to review occupational health risks for doctors in contemporary public healthcare systems; to do that, they analyzed publications taken from both domestic and foreign databases. Multiple research works indicate that doctors’ health and their efficiency are closely connected with peculiarities of their working conditions. Literature contains convincing evidence that unfavorable working conditions exert their influence on doctors’ health; induce occupational diseases, occupational stress and burnout. Specific attention paid to occupational burnout is due to its high prevalence as well as impacts exerted by it on individual health and occupational efficiency of doctors. The authors note that researchers’ interest to occupational stress occurs due to its negative effects on doctors’ health and occupational efficiency and clinical safety as well. Some research works dwell on clinical context of occupational stress that includes strict requirements to work and adverse conditions that stimulate burnout and can result in a threat to a patient’s safety. In researchers’ opinion, specific development of occupational stress syndromes is predetermined by essence and peculiarities of occupational activities performed by doctors with different specialties. Prevalence of occupational burnout among doctors is associated with dysfunctional practices adopted in national public healthcare systems, conditions for medical aid provision, medical specialty, age and gender characteristics, and a stage in career development. It is noted here that doctors’ health is discussed in modern Russian research works not only within the context of unfavorable working conditions. An overall crisis and dysfunctional practices adopted in contemporary Russian public healthcare system have determined status inflation and marginalization of doctors’ occupational group; it influences their individual health directly via financial deprivation and relative deprivation such as stress related to social comparison. In the authors’ opinion, this stress ultimately results in occupational one.

Keywords

• health risks for doctors
• risk factors
• doctors’ efficiency
• occupational stress
• unfavorable working conditions
• burnout
• status inflation
• financial deprivation