Stress among general practitioners and their spouses: a qualitative study

Although research has been carried out on stress in general practitioners, little is known about the stresses experienced by their spouses.

This study was undertaken to identify specific pressures at work and at home experienced by general practitioners and their spouses and to highlight their coping strategies.

In-depth interviews were conducted with 25 general practitioners and their spouses in the north-west of England.

The doctors' increased workload and decreased interest in their family are important stressors for the entire family unit. Other stressors include time pressure, out-of-hours on-call, lack of support and amount of paperwork. General practitioners work late in the surgery, bring work home and spend time away from home at meetings. Family life is constantly interrupted by telephone calls. Role conflict was one of the major sources of stress for women general practitioners. Doctors' wives expressed concern regarding their husbands' excessive commitment to work and problems with communication.

Recent changes to contractual working conditions have caused general practitioners to focus their energies on their practice instead of paying attention to the needs of their family. Male general practitioners leave the bulk of responsibility for running the family and household to their wives, but women general practitioners appear to maintain domestic responsibility while spending as much time in medical practice as their male colleagues. This is only an exploratory study based on a small sample, and so the findings cannot be generalized; however, it provides in-depth information on stress among general practitioners and their spouses.