Professional stress in anesthesiology: a review

Abstract

Anesthesiology is a stressful medical profession. While anesthesia in particular has become safer for the patient in the last decades, anesthesiology as a profession represents a medical field in which the professionals are permanently tense. The various reasons for this situation include the fact that anesthesiology is a team profession that requires perfect cooperation with other specialists. It also entails great responsibility for the patient's life, the daily use of "blind" invasive techniques, and last but not least the production pressure that characterizes the activity in the operating room. There are various methods to quantify professional stress and this article emphasizes the place of measurement of salivary cortisol in order to identify those stressful moments that are part of the anesthesiologist's routine activity, in addition to those individuals who are more prone to develop negative aspects of stress. It seems that there is a strong correlation between the high level of salivary cortisol and stressful events during patient management and also a correlation between this level and a high score of implicit job-stress. This reality created the need to look for remedies; some authors recommend a long list of measures to be taken in order to prevent or reduce the magnitude of professional stress. This list includes a continuous self-care attitude, consisting of having a balanced professional and personal life; adequate sleep; avoiding drugs, obesity, and "workaholic" behavior; as well as better use of leisure. Finally, more studies are needed to find out which preventive means may potentially reduce the risk of professional stress among anesthesiologists.

A saúde física e mental do profissional médico: uma revisão sistemática

“…The main associated factors were the pressures in the work environment that cause occupational stress, such as a weekly workload higher than 70 hours and being on duty more than one in every five days. For Gurman, Klein and Weksler (2012) this high incidence among anesthesiologists is due, in addition, to being responsible for the safety of a patient during a surgery.…”

Tired of Not Being Taken Seriously? Professionalism and How It Affects You

“…Gurman 16 quoted Dr. Isaac Azar as saying, ''We take a patient who is awake, breathing normally and having normal blood pressure and in a few seconds we render him apneic, unconscious and hemodynamically unstabley.'' Gurman 16 quoted Dr. Isaac Azar as saying, ''We take a patient who is awake, breathing normally and having normal blood pressure and in a few seconds we render him apneic, unconscious and hemodynamically unstabley.''…”

The European Society for Computing and Technology in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care (ESCTAIC): a special issue of full papers (Amsterdam meeting 2010) and conference abstracts (Erlangen meeting 2011)

“…Eight full papers [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] were accepted following peer review for publication in this issue, and these reflect the activities of ESCTAIC meeting participants. Three of the papers [3][4][5] deal with monitoring of oxygenation and perfusion covering a spectrum of topics from basic physiological principles to the state of the art in monitoring technologies.…”

“…The final article of the issue [10] deals with one of the less technological aspects of ESCTAIC participants interests. Gurman et al [10] review issues related to the stress levels of the anaesthetist, including the origins and potential consequences of stress, and the quantitative monitoring of stress levels with a particular focus on the role of salivary cortisol.…”