Some aspects of the professional characteristics of neonatologists

Abstract

In order to assess the professional characteristics of neonatologists, random sampling was conducted anonymous questioning of 179 neonatologists working in state medical organizations of St. Petersburg. It was found that among neonatologists, 95.2% were women, whose average age was 44.13 ± 0.13 years. Most doctors worked in maternity hospitals and maternity (obstetric) departments of multidisciplinary hospitals (66.5%). In addition to a certificate in the specialty “Neonatology”, 60.6% of neonatologists had other specialist certificates. The average experience in the specialty “Neonatology” among doctors was 18.10 ± 0.11 years and on average, they worked at 1.1 ± 0.07 rates. The study of labor intensity showed that 35.2% of neonatologists performed their professional duties beyond working hours and 48.6% of neonatologists did not have enough time to rest. Only 26.1% of doctors considered their workload excessive. A feeling of strain in the work was observed in 60.6% of neonatologists. The reason for choosing the profession of a neonatologist in most cases was the love for children (63.6%) and the belief that this profession is their vocation (58.8%). 50.8% of neonatologists were not completely satisfied with their work, and 2.4% were not completely satisfied with it. The main reasons for dissatisfaction with the chosen profession were the low level of wages (34.2%), significant physical and psychological stress (36.0%) and the emergence of conflict situations in the team (25.8%). Nevertheless, 91.4% of neonatologists would not want to change their medical specialty. Thus, the study showed that neonatologists have a high level of professional training and in most cases are guided by the choice of their profession with love for children and the belief that this profession is their calling. Therefore, despite the fact that the high labor intensity of a significant proportion of doctors leads to incomplete satisfaction with their work, only 8.6% of neonatologists are not sure of the correct choice of their medical specialty.