Development of the SOSS-D: a scale to measure stigma of occupational stress and burnout in medical doctors

Abstract

The SOSS-D may assist educators and mental health professionals in measuring and assessing the efficacy of interventions designed to reduce stigma. As such, it is anticipated that the SOSS-D will be a useful instrument for understanding and addressing stigma of occupational stress and burnout among medical doctors, to improve help-seeking behaviours in this population.

A Web- and Mobile-Based Map of Mental Health Resources for Postsecondary Students (Thought Spot): Protocol for an Economic Evaluation

“…A higher score indicates greater intent to seek help. The GHSQ scale was chosen to measure the primary outcome because validation studies have suggested a positive and significant correlation between to seek mental health care and seeking care [ 33 ]. As a result, an assumption of the evaluation is that secondary outcomes (ie, positive changes in help-seeking behaviors among participants) are attributed to positive changes in the primary outcome, help-seeking intentions.…”

Development of a measure of stigma towards occupational stress for mental health professionals

“…Di Benedetto [25] suggests that implicit in legal and ethical mandates for the mental health profession is the faulty notion that MHPs should be immune to mental health problems. Fears of career and organisational repercussions from disclosing difficulties, negative views from and toward colleagues experiencing difficulties, and the view that as health professionals one should be able to manage such difficulties without external intervention are reported to perpetuate stigma within the field [26]. These concerns map directly to issues of public, personal, self, and structural stigma within the MHP field, and suggest there are unique aspects to the experience of stigma within this population.…”

“…To improve help-seeking in this population, there is a need to understand the effects and interrelationships of these types of stigma together, in particular the effects of structural stigma which is often omitted in scales of stigma for MHPs [28][29][30]. The Stigma of Occupational Stress Scale for Doctors (SOSS-D) does measure these attitudinal barriers to help-seeking and has demonstrated strong psychometric properties and structural validity [26]. However, the SOSS-D only targets three of the four facets of stigma (perceived other stigma, perceived structural stigma, and personal stigma) and was developed for use only among medical practitioners.…”

“…As the closest measure with strong psychometric properties, all original items from the SOSS-D [26] were revised to specifically address MHPs rather than medical doctors. The relevance of items was then considered with reference to existing literature and consultation with mental health professionals and field experts.…”

Racing towards a digital paradise or a digital hell?

“…But what about the effects on the healthcare system overall? We have already highlighted the stress experienced by clinicians which differs between cultures (Clough, Ireland, & March, 2019;Labrague et al, 2017;Labrague et al, 2018). Will the introduction of a disruptive technology help them to carry out their jobs, or will it increase their perceived level of stress and potentially increase burnout?…”