Norwegian National Advisory Unit on Concurrent Substance Abuse and Mental Health Disorders, Innlandet Hospital Trust, P.O. Box 104, 2381, Brumunddal, Norway. anna.belfrage@medisin.uio.no.
A higher sense of mastery of doctors' clinical work could benefit not only their own mental health but also their work performance and patient care. However, we know little about factors associated with perceived mastery of clinical work among physicians. Our aim was therefore to study characteristics of those with stable low levels and of those with increased levels of mastery over a period of ten years of medical practice.
N?=?631 doctors were surveyed in their final year of medical school in 1993/94 (T1) and 10 (T2), 15 (T3) and 20 (T4) years later. Low and increased perceived mastery of clinical work were measured between T2, T3 and T4. Response rates for all items measuring low and increased mastery were 238/522 (46%) and 256/522 (49%) respectively. The following explanatory variables were included: demographics, medical school factors, personality and contextual work-related and non-work-related factors.
N?=?73 (31%) of the doctors reported stable low mastery from T2 to T4. The following variables were significantly associated with low mastery in the adjusted analyses: vulnerability (OR: 1.30, P?