Table 5

Occupational stressors ranked by mean frequency

Stressor	Frequency rating	SD
Lack of beds within the main hospital	1.81	0.43
Being overstretched at times	1.67	0.48
Conflicts between clinical work and admin duties	1.60	0.55
Keeping up to date with knowledge	1.59	0.54
Dealing with management in general	1.57	0.56
Effect of hours of work on personal/family life	1.55	0.55
Making the right decision alone	1.49	0.62
Dealing with individual managers	1.47	0.62
Making the right decision as a team	1.46	0.67
Making time for teaching	1.41	0.63
Compromising standards when resources are short	1.40	0.61
Dealing with death	1.37	0.63
Talking to distressed relatives	1.28	0.71
Effect of stress on personal/family life	1.28	0.65
Fear of making mistakes	1.16	0.53
Having to do menial of repetitive tasks	1.14	0.64
Lack of recognition of own contribution by others	1.14	0.69
Low prestige of specialty	1.14	0.70
Pressure of charter standards	1.09	0.72
Difficult relations with senior colleagues	1.02	0.50
Lack of protocols for patient management	0.99	0.58
Sleep deprivation	0.94	0.61
Making time for research	0.92	0.71
Managing A&E budgets	0.88	0.77
Too much responsibility	0.83	0.71
Difficult relations with junior doctors	0.82	0.48
Threat of violence	0.79	0.52
Treatment withdrawal	0.77	0.58
Over-zealous/inappropriate treatment	0.75	0.53
Difficult relations with nursing staff	0.73	0.53
Feeling underutilised	0.54	0.67
Commitments to private practice	0.50	0.63
Sexual harassment	0.06	0.23