Affiliations: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of
Insurance Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden | Department of Anaesthesiology, Faculty of Health
Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Kristina Alexanderson, Department of
Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Insurance Medicine, Karolinska Institutet,
171 77 Stockholm, Sweden. Tel.: +46 8 524 83200; Fax: +46 8524 83205; E-mail:
[email protected]
Abstract: Research is limited regarding occupational stress in academic
physicians; professionals whose work situation includes the three areas of
clinical practice, research, and teaching. The aim of this study was to gain
knowledge of factors experienced as stressful by academic physicians employed
by a university hospital. A questionnaire assessing the frequency and intensity
of 36 potentially stressful factors was sent to all 157 academic physicians who
were employed at the Linköping University Hospital, Sweden. The response
rate was 77%. Both a high frequency and intensity of stress was experienced
by 66% of the academic physicians in relation to "time pressure" and by
almost 50% in connection with both :find time for research" and having
"conflict of interest between different work assignments". Moreover,
physicians in the higher age group and those who had attained a higher academic
position experienced less stress. The female participants experienced more
stress than the males due to gender-related problems and to variables
associated with relationships at work. More knowledge is needed to determine
the consequences of this finding and to identify coping strategies used for
handling such stress.
