Assessment of the stress level of anesthesiologists of the Sergipe anesthesiologists cooperative.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES To assess the impact caused by stress on occupational health of anesthesiologists in Sergipe and to propose solutions to improve work conditions, quality of the service provided, and quality of life. METHODS WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was applied; the sample size was determined by the Barbetta method; and Student t test and Analysis of Variance were used for intergroup comparisons, considering significant a p < 5%. RESULTS This study demonstrated that the mean weekly working hours is 61.33 hours. In the subjective analysis of quality of life, 53.1% of the respondents had a negative or non-established evaluation. On the item "leisure activities", 61.2% answered they have very few opportunities or none at all, demonstrating agreement with personal satisfaction and working assessment. The age group of 41 to 52 years old had the best scores. A significant difference regarding gender and number of working days/week was not observed. The general domain had lower scores than the others in all variables analyzed. CONCLUSIONS Excessive working load contributed to a negative self-evaluation on quality of life, besides hindering access to leisure activities. The implementation of a quality policy in work institutions, as well as a personal reevaluation in search of innovation, professional recycling, leisure alternatives, and motivation are factors that can contribute to improve the quality of life and work of these professionals.