[Work satisfaction and exhaustion among psychiatrists in psychiatric emergency services]

Psychiatric emergency services (PES) have recently occupied a new and growing place in the landscape of mental health services. However, few data are available on the way psychiatrists practice in the PES. Our aim was to survey psychiatrists working in PES, focusing on their job satisfaction and the theoretical models they use in their everyday practice.

We sent a survey to a sample of 508 psychiatrists working in PES in France.

Two hundred and thirty-seven psychiatrists returned the survey, yielding a response rate of 47%. On a 0 to 10 scale, the mean level of job satisfaction was 6.7 (SD: 1.92). Participants reported that facing a variety of clinical situations and playing a key-coordinating role in the mental health system were the two most specific features of emergency psychiatry. The main sources of dissatisfaction were organizational issues and stressful clinical experiences, including violence or hostility. Sixty-three percent (n=150) of participants reported using more than two theoretical models in their practice, while the use of crisis models was reported by almost 40% of them. When assessed for suggestions to improve the PES, the majority of participants indicated that efforts should be focused on organizational factors.

While emergency psychiatry could appear as an ungrateful practice, the majority of psychiatrists who responded to our survey reported satisfaction with their work and highlighted its unique particularities. Future research and collaborations are needed to identify organizational models of PES and their better integration in mental health networks.