Workload and Attitude Toward Profession Among Young Thai Psychiatrists: A National Survey
Muthita Phanasathit MD*, Thammanard Charernboon MD*
Affiliation : * Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University, Pathumthani, Thailand
Objective : To survey workload and attitude toward profession of young Thai psychiatrists.
Material and Method: The present study was a cross sectional descriptive survey. The researcher team invented the
questionnaire and posted it to 142 young Thai psychiatrists (age < 40 years old).
Results : There were 82 participants. Response rate was 57.7%. The respondents were 30 males (36.6%), 52 females
(63.4%), 66 general psychiatrists (80.5%), 16 child and adolescent psychiatrists (19.5%). Their mean of age was 31.4 years
old. Those worked at hospitals under the Department of Mental Health (36.6%), the Office of Permanent Secretary (29.7%),
universities (13.4%) and other institutions (12.2%). In office hours, the respondents had an average working hour 39.5
hours/week, while an average outpatient service working hour 15.6 hours/week. An average amount of outpatients was 89.9
patients/week. Each institution was significantly different in consultation liaison, teaching, administration, community psychiatry,
and research. The percentages of young psychiatrists who agreed with the opinions “proud to be a psychiatrist”, “working
effectively as a psychiatrist” and “satisfied with psychiatric working system” were 98.9, 95.1 and 65.9 respectively. The
average amount of outpatients (patients/week) affected job satisfaction.
Conclusion : The full-time working hour of young Thai psychiatrists was not different from other studies. However they had
more psychiatric patients and spent more time doing outpatient service because of scarcity of psychiatrists in Thailand. Even
though the number of psychiatric outpatients affected job satisfaction, most of them had positive professional attitude.
Keywords : Young psychiatrist, Workload, Attitude, Profession
