Dissatisfaction and Protest of First-Year Obstetrics and Gynecology Residents and Related Factors: A Qualitative Study

Physical and emotional stress during the residency period can have lasting negative effects on residents’ health as well as patient care. Such stress can cause emotional and psychological burnout, decreased physician productivity, impaired job performance, and poor social relationships. First-year residents have more burnout and stress due to many factors. This study aimed to investigate the reasons for the protest of this group of residents.

This qualitative study was conducted with the participation of residents and professors of obstetrics and gynecology in one of the teaching hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in spring of 2021. Data were collected through individual face-to-face interviews and group discussions. The conventional content analysis method was used to analyze the data. To ensure the accuracy of the qualitative data, the criteria proposed by Lincoln and Guba were considered.

A total of 14 participants were interviewed and 16 people participated in focus group discussion sessions. From the text of the interviews, two themes were extracted. Participants’ experiences showed unbearable pressure, domination, and anonymity as stressors in first-year obstetrics and gynecology residents.

The results showed that the main reason for the protest of the first-year residents was the wrong behavior of the second-year residents and the lack of supervision over these behaviors. Launching a kindness campaign was a suggested solution in this research that could help improve communication between residents and the educational atmosphere.