Effects of active on-call hours on physicians' turnover intentions and well-being

This study examined whether active on-call hours and the co-occurrence of lifestyle risk factors are associated with physicians' turnover intentions and distress.

Cross-sectional survey data on randomly selected female (N=1571) and male (N=1081) physicians, aged 25 to 65 years, from The Finnish Health Care Professionals Study were used. The outcome measures were turnover intentions and distress (general health questionnaire). Smoking, heavy drinking, overweight, and low physical activity were assessed as lifestyle risk factors. Analyses of covariance were used to analyze the data.

After adjustment for gender, age, employment sector, and job satisfaction, the analyses showed that the physicians who had been on active call more than 40 hours per month reported more distress than the group not on call (P=0.046). The physicians with two or more risk factors also had more distress (P<0.001) than those with no risk factors or only one risk factor. There was an interaction between active on-call hours and lifestyle risk factors for turnover intentions (P=0.002). The physicians with two or more lifestyle risk factors who had been on active call more than 40 hours per month had more turnover intentions than the other physicians.

On-call duty and the co-occurrence of lifestyle risk factors may both decrease physicians' well being and increase their intentions to leave their job.