Iqbal Haider, Nayab Munib, Muhammad Tariq Khan, Abdul Majid.
Work-associated stress in female postgraduate residents in public sector teaching hospitals of Peshawar.
Gomal J Med Sci Jan ;21(4):240-4.

Background: Postgraduate training is a stressful and tough job. The long working hours and profound professional responsibilities of these doctors make it one of the stressful phases of their lives. The commonly reported phenomenons during this period of training include emotional impairement, depression and burnout. The concept of this study is to assess work-associated stress in female postgraduaate residents.  Materials and methods:  This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted at three largest public sector teaching hospitals of Peshawar from 1st Feb. to 1st March 2023. A convenient sampling technique was utilized after approval from institutional ethical approval committee. The sample size was 152 female postgraduate residents. A validated Kessler-10 Psychological index (KSI) was used as research tool to assess stress level. Data were analysed by SPSS software version 26. Overall stress in relation to specific departments, marital status, paternal status and year of residency were calculated.  Results:  Out of 152 participants, 70 (46.1%) had mild stress, 57 (37.5%) had moderate stress and 17 (11.2%) had severe stress. Eight (5.3%) had no stress. The highest level of severe stress was documented in female residents from Paediatrics department (16.7%), followed by Gynae/ Obs (15.0%) and then General medicine (14.3%). Conclusion:  High levels of percieved severe stress was reported in female residents from Paediatrics, Gynae/ Obs and General medicine departments during postgraduate training. The potential high workload and prolong duty hours could be the underlying phenomena. Further multi-center studies involving large cohorts are required for generalization.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com