ABSTRACT
Objectives@#Physicians experience high occupational stress due to heavy workload, responsibility and stressful situations in the medical field. Although occupational stress decreases productivity and increases medical accidents, occupational stress on Korean psychiatrists is not well studied. In this study, we investigated the occupational stress and career satisfaction of Korean psychiatrists. @*Methods@#Electronic surveys were conducted via e-mail, and a total of 266 psychiatrists fully answered the surveys. The surveys consisted of the Korean Occupational Stress Scale (KOSS), career satisfaction and stress inventory for the health professional. @*Results@#The mean KOSS score of Korean psychiatrists was lower than the score of other Korean professions (43.99 vs. 46.03). There are significant differences in the sub-items of KOSS, depending on the lifestyle, the career and the hospital on duty. Psychiatric residents scored significantly higher in job control and occupational climate than psychiatrists. On the other hand, workplace relationships and job insecurity scored significantly higher in psychiatrists. Psychiatrists working in general and university hospitals had higher stress in job demand than psychiatrists working at private psychiatric hospitals. Job control and lack of reward scores were high in psychiatrists working in national psychiatric hospitals, and 21.8% of psychiatrists answered that they would not become a psychiatrist again. @*Conclusion@#This study showed the overall job stress level of psychiatrists in Korea, and they were experiencing high job stress in different areas depending on factors, such as position, working environment and living habits.