Occupational stress, distress and emotional burnout doctors of different specialties

Introduction. More than 80% of healthcare workers experience professional burnout during their work, but there is no systematic monitoring of the risk and level of professional burnout in this professional group. To address this issue, it is necessary to regularly assess the psychoemotional state of healthcare workers, taking into account their specialty, length of service, and individual workload, and to develop targeted preventive programs.

The aim of the study. To consider the features of occupational burnout among doctors of therapeutic and surgical profile in specialized hospitals.

Research materials and methods. The study included doctors: group 1 – gastroenterologists (n=52 people); group 2 – cardiologists (n=58 people); group 3 – oncologists-therapists (n=48 people); group 4 – abdominal surgeons (n=71 people); group 5 – cardiac surgeons (n=30 people); group 6 – oncologists and surgeons (n=65 people); and group 7 – control group: employees of engineering, technical, and economic specialties who are not related to work in medical institutions (healthy) (n=75 people).

The assessment of the level of occupational burnout among medical workers was carried out using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) methodology developed by K. Maslach, S. Jackson, adapted by N.E. Vodopyanova.

Results. The professional activity of doctors of therapeutic and surgical specialties is associated with the effects of chronic occupational stress, leading to the development of occupational burnout. Emotional exhaustion was more pronounced among specialist doctors whose work was related to the treatment of oncological and cardiovascular diseases, and to a lesser extent depended on the therapeutic and surgical profile. The indicator of depersonalization was statistically significantly increased only in the group of oncological surgeons. The reduction of personal achievements significantly differed in profile and was more pronounced among surgical specialists. The mental burnout index highlights the difference between groups of surgical doctors due to the presence of high and extremely high values.

Limitations. The study has regional (Samara region) and occupational (in terms of the detailed working conditions in the comparison groups studied) limitations.

Conclusion. These features of burnout in groups of doctors of therapeutic and surgical profile imply the conduct of diagnostic tests in these groups with different multiplicities. Knowledge of the differences in the severity of certain indices of professional burnout for different groups of doctors of therapeutic and surgical profile, taking into account specialization can be used in the preparation of a program for the prevention of professional burnout in doctors.

Compliance with ethical standards. The study was conducted as part of the comprehensive topic of the Department of Occupational Diseases and Clinical Pharmacology named after Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Professor V.V. Kosarev of the Samara State Medical University “Problems of polymorbidity, diagnostics, prognosis, and prevention of occupational and work-related diseases in workers with isolated combined exposure to factors of the production environment and the work process” (registration number 124053000016-4, registration date 30.05.2024). The study was approved by the local ethics committee of the Samara State Medical University on 23.09.2023. Each study participant gave informed voluntary written consent to participate in the study.

Contribution:
Melentyev A.V. – concept and design of the study, data collection and processing, writing the text, editing;
Babanov S.A. – concept and design of the study, data collection and processing, writing the text, editing;
Lysova M.V. – concept and design of the study, data collection and processing, writing the text, editing;
Zhestkov A.V. – writing the text, editing;
Strizhakov L.A. – writing the text, editing;
Babanov A.S. – writing the text, editing;
Ostryakova N.A. – writing the text, editing.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding. The study had no sponsorship.

Received: June 2, 2025 / Revised: June 4, 2025 / Accepted: September 19, 2025 / Published: October 20, 2025

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