Stress Prevention Amongst Doctors

About the project

Unlike medical students, practising doctors are generally left to their own devices to cope with stress. As a result, stress seems to be more prevalent amongst doctors. While activities outside of work are important to maintain and enhance wellbeing, doctors also need to be able to engage with work in a ‘nourishing’ way. This research focusses on educational interventions intended to help doctors learn ways to recognise, prevent and manage the harmful effects of stress.

Following an approved National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) approach, the study has two components:

• A systematic review concerning the existing evidence to determine the features of successful educational interventions on stress management for doctors, using EPPI 4 Reviewer software.
• Three Focus Groups with eighteen medical educators concerning their experiences and views on workplace stress and interventions of use.

Findings overview

The first phase of the research, the systematic literature review, is now complete. Three broad clusters of interventions emerged from the analytic coding process:

• Mindfulness-type
• Coping- and solutions-focussed
• Reflective groups

There is good evidence that the impact of educational interventions can be positive and help doctors deal with stress, but the contextual factors such as medical specialty may dictate which intervention should be used. A theory-based tool is advanced to help medical educators choose an appropriate educational intervention.

For published outputs of this project, visit Dr Rachel Locke's academic profile.