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Coping skills for resident physicians: A program of stress management
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop and test the effectiveness of one model composite stress management workshop on the perceived stress levels of resident physicians. It was hypothesized that resident physicians would utilize stress management techniques to decrease their perceived stress and would report an increase in work satisfaction and increase their coping skills. The intervention focused on four major areas of stress management: (1) personal management skills; (2) relationship skills; (3) outlook skills; and (4) stamina skills. Sixty-four resident physicians from training programs in Pediatrics, Medical-Pediatrics, and Medicine volunteered to participate in this study. From this group, 43 resident physicians were divided into three sections and were assigned to one of three stress management workshops provided by the researcher. The remaining group of 21 resident physicians became a control group and received no treatment except for the pretest and posttest. To measure the perceived levels of stress, two stress instruments were administered to both groups with the pretest given two weeks before the workshop and the posttest given four weeks after the workshop. The instruments were the Essi Systems Stress Instrument (Orioli, Jaffe, & Scott, 1987) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1981). The Life Experiences Survey (Sarason, Johnson, & Siegel, 1978) was administered to the treatment group only. Overall, the results supported the effectiveness of this model of stress management workshop for this population. The treatment group reported improvement in half the measures of stress and coping skills. The specific components which showed significant improvement were in areas such as work satisfaction, coping ability, behavioral and emotional symptoms of stress, and emotional exhaustion. The results were determined by an analysis of variance. Conclusions drawn from this study confirmed the high level of stress for resident physicians and indicated a definite place for stress management workshops within residency training programs, and possible for stress management programs in general. Implications were drawn for incorporating stress management training throughout the course of physician training to reduce stress directly by re-designing the work environment in which resident physicians practice.
Subject Area
School counseling|Occupational psychology|Mental health|Health education
Recommended Citation
Sachs, Carol L, "Coping skills for resident physicians: A program of stress management" (1990). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9022738.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9022738