General practitioners' subjective experience of surgery workload

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• General Practice
• Psychology

Background:

• General practitioners (GPs) in the UK report heavy workload as a primary cause of work-related stress.
• Limited evidence exists to confirm this claim or differentiate stress sources between workload quantity and type.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between surgery characteristics and subjective workload in UK general practice.
• To determine if workload quantity or type is a more significant predictor of GP stress.

Main Methods:

• A within-subjects design was employed over two weeks.
• Three GPs provided subjective workload ratings after each surgery (N=20-23).
• Correlational and multiple regression analyses examined surgery characteristics and GP perceptions.

Main Results:

• Surgery length, consultation numbers, re-presentations, and investigations requested significantly predicted GP workload.
• GPs' perceptions of patients did not significantly predict workload.
• Surgery length accounted for most of the variance in subjective workload, with longer surgeries leading to more follow-up appointments.

Conclusions:

• A link exists between overall surgery work demands and subjective workload experience for GPs.
• The type of work undertaken did not consistently predict additional effects on workload.
• Surgery length is a key factor influencing GP workload and subsequent patient management decisions.