Las instituciones de salud y el autocuidado de los médicos

Abstract

Arenas-Monreal L, Hernández-Tezoquipa I, Valdez-Santiago R, Fernández-Bonilla P. Health institutions and physicians' self-care. Salud Publica Mex 2004;46:326-332. The English version of this paper is available at: http://www.insp.mx/salud/index.html Abstract Objective. To analyze how self-care of health workers is influenced by their professional training and institutional setting. Material and Methods. This study took place from March 2000 to February 2001 in a health center, a general hospital, and a health research institute. Qualitative in-depth interviews were used to collect data. Four in-depth inter-views were conducted among physicians at the study sites: two to primary care physicians and two to secondary care physicians. Results. Study findings show that physicians face barriers to self-care. Secondary care physicians were par-ticularly affected by long work journeys and multiemploy-ment. The main difficulties were associated with stress, nutrition, rest, and recreational activities. Physicians did not regularly have medical check-ups and would often simply consult with their colleagues in " hallway checkups " when they were afflicted by an illness. The physicians coincided in their recommendation that the health institutions should develop policies, programs, guidelines, and facilities to pro-mote self-care among health workers. Conclusions. Health institutions are not designed or organized to promote self-care among their personnel. In the case of secondary care physicians, the organizational structure often prevents them from engaging in healthy activities.