Work-related stress among primary healthcare workers

Introduction / Aim. The aim of this paper is to investigate the state of stress among employees in the field of primary health care in order to identify the factors that most affect stress and the identification of groups that are particularly susceptible to stress. Methods. The survey was conducted using a sample of 95 health workers in the field of primary health care. Data was collected through an anonymous survey consisting of two parts. The first part of the survey included questions related to the characteristics of the workplace, the professional and socio-demographic characteristics of the employees. The second part of the survey is based on the Behavioral Health Concepts (BHC) stress test, which is used to estimate the adaptation to stress across four dimensions: overall assessment, quality of life assessment, symptomatology, and level of functioning. Results. Using descriptive statistical analysis, it was discovered that, although the total number of respondents fell under the group of moderate stress (M = 3.97), 4.2% of the respondents had an elevated level of stress. The use of variance analysis demonstrated that there were statistically significant differences (p <0.00) between the effects of educational variables (F = 11.68), workplace (F = 14.07) and work time (F = 9.16) on overall stress. Significant interaction between variable workplace and work time was also found [F (2.72) = 3.22; p <.046]. Conclusion. Primary health care employees have an increased level of stress, which depends on both the working conditions and the personal characteristics of the employees.