Conference paper
THE MENTAL HEALTH OF NEWLY GRADUATE DOCTORS IN MALTA
Rachel Taylor-East
; Mount Carmel Hospital, Attard, Malta
Anton Grech
; Department of Psychiatry, Mount Carmel Hospital, Attard, Malta
Caroline Gatt
; University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
Abstract
Background: Several studies have shown high rates of psychiatric morbidity in young doctors at various stages of their training
(Paice, et al. 2002, Levine et al. 2006). Migration is also known to have an impact on emotional wellbeing (Bhugra 2004). Foreign
doctors in Malta now make up over 30% of the junior doctor cohort. This is a new situation for trainers here.This study was carried
out in part fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of Specialist Training in Psychiatry in Malta. This article focuses on the
first part of the study: the quantitative analysis aimed to answer the following questions: 1. What are the rates of mental health
problems amongst recently qualified doctors? 2. What are the factors associated with the increased rates of mental distress?
Subjects and methods: A quantitative cross-sectional analysis was carried out by means of self-report questionnaire including
demographic details and the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) (Goldberg 1972). This study was approved by the Health
Ethics Committee (HEC23/12).
Results: 117 (78.5%) of junior doctors participated in this study. 70.9% were Maltese. 49.4% were found to have GHQ-28
scores of more than 6, indicating significant psychological distress. Further analyses revealed that lack of leisure time (p<0.001),
uncertainty (p=0.009), migration (p=0.03) and being female (p=0.04) were significantly related to caseness.
Conclusion: As trainers and supervisors in medical education, it is important to be aware of the difficulties that young doctors
face. These may include psychological distress, significant enough to reach caseness. Lack of leisure time seems to be an important
factor which is possibly an area that can be easily tackled.
Keywords
stress; anxiety; depression; junior doctors; migration
Hrčak ID:
266619
URI
Publication date:
26.8.2013.
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