Article Text
Abstract
Background Having to make life and death decisions while managing the anxiety of patients and family members, sometimes in hostile environments, makes medicine a high-stress job. This can be compounded by work-life imbalance. These pressures can negatively impact work-related outcomes namely health and well-being, attitudes and performance. Psychological capital (PsyCap) is a ubiquitous positive psychological resource comprising a composite of hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism. It is reported to be protective against adverse outcome and positively predictive of favourable outcomes. The aim of this systematic review was to examine the relationship between PsyCap and work-related outcomes among doctors.
Methods APA PsycArticles and Medline were searched. The search strategy was guided by the PECOS framework. The population was restricted to fully qualified doctors and studies which quantified PsyCap and assessed its association with work-related outcomes were included. Articles were uploaded into Rayyan and screened based on the framework. Included studies were appraised using the JBI critical appraisal checklist. Relevant data was extracted into an Excel sheet under the headings ‘Type of study’, ‘Population’ and ‘Work outcomes’. The data was reported as a narrative synthesis.
Results The electronic search retrieved 125 records. One hundred and twelve were excluded; mainly because the wrong population was reported. An additional 2 studies were identified from background reading. The final 15 studies were all cross-sectional design. Eleven satisfied all 7 of the critical appraisal criteria. Thirteen were conducted in China. All 15 studies analysed the relationship between PsyCap and psychological well-being, reporting that PsyCap was negatively correlated with depression and burnout. In addition, PsyCap negatively mediated the association between workplace violence, occupational stress and overcommitment on depression and health-related quality of life. Ten studies assessed the association between PsyCap and job-related attitudes. PsyCap was positively correlated with job involvement, work engagement, motivation, perceived organisational support and job satisfaction. Moreover, PsyCap negatively mediated the impact of burnout, conflict and workplace violenceon organisational identityandprofessional efficacy. One study evaluated job performance which was shown to be positively correlated with PsyCap.
Conclusion PsyCap positively predicted positive work outcomes and negatively mediated the impact of job stressors on these outcomes. There are several areas for future research: The influence of gender, specialty and clinical grade were not explicitly examined. Performance outcome was under-represented. Most studies were in China with no representation from the Western hemisphere. Interventions that aim to increase PsyCap in doctors are warranted.