Estresse ocupacional em médicos e enfermeiros de UTIs pediátricas e neonatais públicas no Distrito Federal

Abstract

Introduction: Pediatric and neonatal intensive care units (ICUs) are settings where work processes are complex and the severity of patients leads health care professionals to face borderline situations of life and death. For these reasons, job demands are high and control over work is often lost in such units. These conditions require workers to expose themselves to stressful events that can often lead to illness with a consequent impact on job performance and productivity. Many researchers worldwide have been concerned about this situation and have tried to measure occupational stress to diagnose it and suggest changes in workers’ behavior and in the dynamics of work setting and structure. One of the instruments used to measure occupational stress based on job demand and control is the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ), developed by Robert Karasek. This tool has been translated into Portuguese and validated since 2008. Objectives: To assess the prevalence of occupational stress under the aspect of demand and control in doctors and nurses working in Pediatric and neonatal ICUs in public hospitals in the Federal District and to compare the differences in this incidence between the professional categories. Methods: A quantitative, analytical, cross-sectional study was conducted. Data were collected from the pediatric and neonatal ICUs of the Federal District Health Department from December 2019 to April 2020. In total, 154 individuals completed the JCQ. Stratified analysis was performed by type of ICU (pediatric and neonatal). Four final groups were created based on the JCQ: active job, passive job, low strain, and high strain. Results: Greater exposure to occupational stress was observed in neonatal ICU professionals, with a predominance of high demand (50: 54.9%), than in pediatric ICU professionals, in whom low psychological demand predominated (41: 65.1%) (p=0.01). Most pediatric ICU nurses showed low control over their work (13: 65.0%), unlike physicians who, in general, showed high control (28: 65.1%) (p=0.02). There was no difference between neonatal ICU physicians and nurses. When comparing physicians from the two types of ICU, a predominance of high demand was observed among physicians from the neonatal ICU (35: 53.8%) and low demand among those from the pediatric ICU (28: 65.1%) (p=0.05). There was no difference between the nurses of the two types of ICU. Conclusion: There was greater exposure to occupational stress in the neonatal ICU compared to the pediatric ICU. Nurses are more exposed to occupational stress than physicians in the pediatric ICU. Doctors and nurses are equally exposed to occupational stress in the NICU.