A Hard Day’s Night: Work Hour Composition and Well-Being Among Norwegian Doctors, 2000-2018

BACKGROUND: Physician burnout and turnover is a critical issue in many health care systems worldwide, and a better understanding of it may inform organizational policies to retain key personnel. While there is now much empirical evidence on the harmful effects of long work hours on health for the medical profession, we still know little about the role of work hour composition. If we can identify specific job tasks that are negatively associated with physicians’ life quality, we could prevent burnout and turnover. The balance between time spent on patient care versus administrative tasks is likely to affect doctors’ well-being, in primary care and hospital settings as well as in private practice. Doctors often complain over the burden of administrative work, and the time devoted to these tasks have increased significantly over the past decades. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate the effect of work hour composition on the well-being of doctors in different job positions (hospital doctors, general practitioners, private practice specialists, and doctors in academia). METHODS: The data were derived from the ‘Doctor Panel’, which is a representative panel of active Norwegian doctors surveyed biannually, administered by the Institute for Studies of the Medical Profession. Our data included the 10 rounds from 2000 to 2018, including approximately 1300 doctors per round, and with response rates around 70 and 80 per cent. We examined two key indicators of physicians’ well-being: self-rated health and life satisfaction. The explanatory factor of interest, work hour composition, distinguished between five job tasks: 1) patient-related work, 2) meetings, 3) administrative tasks, 4) professional updating, and 5) other tasks. Using panel data analysis, we also controlled for possible confounding factors such as medical specialty, geography, experience, and demography. RESULTS: The results were not ready at the time of the abstract deadline.