ArticleBMJ open2019
Doctors don't Do-little: a national cross-sectional study of workplace well-being of hospital doctors in Ireland.
Article in BMJ open, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 62 citations in OpenAlex.
- Healthcare Professionals' Subjective Well-Being: A Systematic Review and Methodological Appraisal of Conceptual Models, Measurement Instruments, and Associated Factors.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Pooled it
- Burnout before and during COVID: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 48 698 trainees.Medical education · 2025Pooled it
- Meta-analysis of effort-reward imbalance prevalence among physicians.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2022Pooled it
- 'I would have blamed myself, but coming back, I can see that it wasn't me': A qualitative, descriptive phenomenological analysis of doctors' reflective processes in recovery from burnout and mental crisis.Journal of health psychology · 2026Article
- Healing the healers: Unlocking psychological well-being through meaningful work and quality of work life.Narra J · 2025Article
- Exploring the link between age at menarche, anthropometry and body fat composition with type II diabetes in a Singapore multi-ethnic cohort.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Going to work sick: A scoping review of illness presenteeism among physicians and medical trainees.Medical education · 2025Article
- Article
- Physician wellbeing in a national rehabilitation hospital, a qualitative study utilizing Maslow's hierarchy of needs as a framework for analysis.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Associations between effort-reward imbalance and risk of burnout among Swedish physicians.Occupational medicine (Oxford, England) · 2024Article
- How do they cope? A national cross-sectional study of coping in hospital doctors in Ireland.BMJ open · 2024Article
- The Irish national chronic obstructive pulmonary disease quality improvement collaborative: an adaptive learning collaborative.BMJ open quality · 2024Article
- Article
- Perceptions of healthcare professionals' psychological wellbeing at work and the link to patients' experiences of care: A scoping review.International journal of nursing studies advances · 2023Article
- Burnout in mental health services in Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic.BJPsych open · 2023Article
- A cross-sectional survey of doctors' views on flexible postgraduate physician training in Ireland.Irish journal of medical science · 2023Article
- Dublin hospital workers' mental health during the peak of Ireland's COVID-19 pandemic.Irish journal of medical science · 2023Article
- Perceived stress and psychological disorders in healthcare professionals: a multiple chain mediating model of effort-reward imbalance and resilience.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Feeling like the enemy: the emotion management and alienation of hospital doctors.Frontiers in sociology · 2023Article
- Worsening of mental health outcomes in nursing home staff during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland.PloS one · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo measure levels of occupational stress, burn-out, work-life balance, presenteeism, work ability (balance between work and personal resources) and desire to practise in trainee and consultant hospital doctors in Ireland.
designNational cross-sectional study of randomised sample of hospital doctors. Participants provided sociodemographic data (age, sex), work grade (consultant, higher/basic specialist trainee), specialty, work hours and completed workplace well-being questionnaires (Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) Scale, overcommitment, Maslach Burnout Inventory) and single item measures of work ability, presenteeism, work-life balance and desire to practise.
settingIrish publicly funded hospitals and residential institutions.
participants1749 doctors (response rate of 55%). All hospital specialties were represented except radiology.
results29% of respondents had insufficient work ability and there was no sex, age or grade difference. 70.6% reported strong or very strong desire to practise medicine, 22% reported good work-life balance, 82% experienced workplace stress, with effort greatly exceeding reward, exacerbated by overcommitment. Burn-out was evident in 29.7% and was significantly associated with male sex, younger age, lower years of practice, lower desire to practise, lower work ability, higher ERI ratio and greater overcommitment. Apart from the measures of work ability and overcommitment, there was no sex or age difference across any variable. However, ERI and burn-out were significantly lower in consultants than trainees.
conclusionsHospital doctors across all grades in Ireland had insufficient work ability, low levels of work-life balance, high levels of work stress and almost one-third experienced burn-out indicating suboptimal work conditions and environment. Yet, most had high desire to practise medicine. Measurement of these indices should become a quality indicator for hospitals and research should focus on the efficacy of a range of individual and organisational interventions for burn-out and occupational stress.
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Registered trials
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