Abstract: BACKGROUND: High distress levels in healthcare workers in
Japan may deteriorate safe service provision. OBJECTIVE: To clarify
job stress of healthcare workers, we compared Brief Job Stress Questionnaire
(BJSQ) scores among physicians, nursing staff and administrative workers. METHODS: Healthcare workers (n=9,137) in 20 hospitals in Japan were
asked to answer BJSQ. BJSQ is job stress questionnaire to measure "Job
Stressors", "Stress Responses" and "Social Supports". RESULTS: The "Total Health Risk" of the healthcare workers was 10% higher than the
national average. While the physicians felt the stress of the quantitative and
qualitative job overload, they had support from supervisors and coworkers and
showed mild "Stress Responses". The nursing staff felt the stress of the
quantitative and qualitative job overload at the same level as the physicians,
but they did not have sufficient support from supervisors and coworkers, and
showed high "Stress Responses". The administrative workers did not have
sufficient support from supervisors and coworkers, but they experienced less
stress as measured by the quantitative and qualitative job overload than the
physicians or the nursing staff and showed moderate "Stress Responses". CONCLUSIONS: Further studies are needed to clarify the mechanisms and the
influence of other factors to the stress trait in healthcare workers.
