Individual, organizational and institutional context in general emergency physicians in 23 hospitals in Valle del Cauca

Abstract

Background: The working conditions of general practitioners in Colombia have been deteriorating in recent decades, to such an extent that they live in a working environment with a high level of dissatisfaction both professionally and personally; too their quality of life and job performance that affecting not only the professional but also the effectiveness of the Colombian health system.

Objective: Investigate the individual, organizational and institutional framework under which the work activities of physicians are carried out.

Methods: Through a likert-type survey, the contexts in which 94 emergency physicians work at different levels of complexity and in different hospitals in Valle del Cauca are studied in depth.

Results: At the individual level, 11.7% of the participants reported experiencing depressive disorder and 8.5% anxiety disorder, 4.3% had some type of occupational illness, 18.1% reported some type of occupational accident. It was identified that 23.4% are at high risk for Burnout syndrome. At the organizational level, the coordinator's management, assertive communication and organizational environment were highly rated in all subregions, while the level of autonomy was found at medium levels. At the institutional level, the dimensions evaluated showed a high level of satisfaction.

Conclusions: Emergency physicians because of their working conditions may be more susceptible to suffer anxiety and/or depression; and to be more likely to develop Burnout syndrome. In all regions, the individual, organizational and institutional dimensions evaluated were rated as highly satisfactory