What is it about?
Practice assitants support ambulatory physicians in their daily work and constitute one of the most popular training professions in Germany. As the work pace in ambulatory care is high, practice assitants are exposed to great stress. Our study revealed that social support and participation are ressources to practice assitants while work disruptions and scope of action are stressors.
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Why is it important?
Practice assistants are one essential part of the practice team in German ambulatory care. Without them ambulatory care would not work. Therefore, it is important to guarantee a mentally healthy workforce. Among others, our findings show that practice assistants´ scope of action should be improved and work disruptions should be prevented.
Perspectives
One clear implications for practice that can be derived from the study results is to increase practice assitants scope of action. Especially in times when there is a shortage of physicians in ambulatory care and physicians are struggling with a high workload, it can be a win win situation to expand practice assitants´ scope of action.
Jan Hoffmann
University hospital Cologne
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Practice assistants´ perceived mental workload: A cross-sectional study with 550 German participants addressing work content, stressors, resources, and organizational structure, PLoS ONE, October 2020, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240052.
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