Profession and stress: burnout syndrome, personal anxiety, and the quality of life of therapists

Medical workers, including doctors of therapeutic specialties, are one of the most vulnerable categories among the professions helping to form disorders of the psycho-emotional sphere, increase the level of occupational stress, the level of professional burnout, increased anxiety and a decrease in the quality of life. The purpose of the study is to establish the peculiarities of the state of the psychoemotional sphere among doctors of therapeutic specialties (oncologists of therapeutic profile (outpatient oncologists), pulmonologists, occupational pathologists who, along with therapeutic work, deal with issues of examination of the connection of the disease with the profession and examination of professional suitability. To achieve this goal, four groups of doctors were examined.: Group 1 — oncologists of therapeutic profile (outpatient oncologists); group 2 — pulmonologists; group 3 — occupational pathologists; Group 4 — control group — employees of engineering, technical and economic specialties who are not related in their field of activity to work in medical organizations. The assessment was carried out using the Maslach Burnout professional burnout assessment questionnaire, developed by American psychologists S. Maslach, S. E. Jackson, adapted by N. E. Vodopyanova, E. S. Starchenkova, the integrative Anxiety Test (ITT) and the SF-36 quality of life questionnaire. The statistical package Statistica from StatSoft (USA) was used for data processing. It has been established that the work of doctors of therapeutic specialties is associated with an increase in the level of occupational stress, the level of professional burnout, an increase in anxiety, and a decrease in the quality of life. At the same time, psychological changes are most pronounced among oncologists of a therapeutic profile (outpatient oncologists), as well as occupational pathologists. It is necessary to continue research on the emotional state of medical personnel in order to carry out timely preventive treatment to preserve the health of medical workers. The study has regional (Samara region) and professional (in terms of detailed working conditions in the comparison groups studied) limitations.