It’s about time – Associations between working time dimensions and well-being of physicians

ABSTRACT

Several working time characteristics have been linked to negative outcomes for health personnel. The aim was to investigate the impact of working time dimensions on well-being in a representative sample of physicians. Data was collected during a baseline study. Linear regression analysis was performed on a sample including 669 physicians of different medical specialties. The questionnaire included sociodemographic characteristics and information on working time dimensions (e.g. shift work). In addition, job satisfaction, workload and self-reported health were explored. The majority were female, working in internal medicine and the mean age was 42.5 years. Findings reveal that overtime hours (β = −0.478, p = .011) and autonomy (β = 0.444, p < .001) were significantly associated with job satisfaction. The number of free weekends (β = −2.622, p = .005) and autonomy significantly predicted personal (β = −6.153, p < .001), work-related (β = −6.597, p < .001) and patient-related workload (β = −4.731, p < .001). Overall health was only affected by working time autonomy (β = 3.804, p < .001). In conclusion, the study suggests that working time characteristics have negative consequences for well-being and need to be addressed to ensure health, performance and safety of physicians.

KEYWORDS:

• Physician
• working time
• overtime
• shift work
• workload
• job satisfaction

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the State Chamber of Physicians of Saxony for helping us to collect the data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to legal and ethical restrictions (participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly) but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The study was supported by the State Chamber of Physicians of Saxony and the University of Leipzig. Funding did not affect the design of the study, the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and the writing of the manuscript; Faculty of Medicine, University of Leipzig [Junior Research Grant].