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Table 6 Illustrative comments for core quantitative trends and themes

From: Burnout, stress and intentions to leave work in New Zealand psychiatrists; a mixed methods cross sectional study

Theme/variable

Illustrative comment

Burnout as a consequence of work pressure

“I frequently work overtime at the end of the day to feel that I’m on top of my work. If urgent things happen this may not be possible, and that is when I’m likely to feel burnt out. This is on top of the stress of working long hours several days in succession

Stress at work

The biggest stress is lack of beds to admit people when working on-call as well as the general risks of caring for people who at times may be violent or suicidal as part of their illness

Intentions to leave work

“I think the mental health system in New Zealand is so broken that no matter where you work, you experience the same levels of disillusionment”

“If I could I’d work in mental health but not in a clinical role because of work pressure and stress”

Degree of job satisfaction

“I like seeing people and helping them. I do not like feeling that I could do better with both my patients and the service as a whole”

Time, resourcing and workloads

“My caseload is 150 + patients. Well above average for other parts of the service. This is reflective of significant population growth. I highlight these concerns regularly, but additional resource is not forthcoming. I submitted data for service sizing over two years ago, without a response yet from management.”

Growth in workload over time

“I have worked for this DHB for twenty years this year. The amount of people we see and the complexity inexorably rises, and it gets harder and harder. I still think psychiatry is a good job, but most of my senior registrars arrive at our team saying they don’t want to be psychiatrists as all the psychiatrist’s jobs look awful. It is very sad. When I look back on patient files, I am reminded how much care we could provide, 5 10 and 15 years ago to specific patients compared to now.”

“If you are able to meet time frames for follow up appointments, this means that care is suboptimal”