Background The task of being a tertiary hospital chief executive could be enormous and overwhelming, and may therefore lead to job stress and psychological problems.
Aim The study's aim was to explore the psychological well-being of the chief executives of Nigerian tertiary health institutions with a view to finding morbidity level if any, and the associated risk factors.
Method A cross-sectional study in which participants were given 2 questionnaires that assessed (i) socio- debiographic and job-related characteristics, and ( ii ) psychiatric morbidity, using the 30-item general health questionnaire!GHQ-30 ). All the 53 tertiary health institutions'
chief executives - Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) were the participant in the study. Data were analyses with the SPSS version 11. Frequency distributions and chi square figures were calculated. The level of statistical significance was set at 5%.
Results Thirty-five respondents returned completed questionnaires ( response rate of 66% ).Ten respondents scored 4 and above on the GHQ ( i.e.
28% had psychiatric morbidity ) while 25 scored less than 4. The chief executives
whose jobs adversely affected their families were significantly more likely to have psychological morbidity.
Conclusion It is concluded that the executive positions of the chief medical directors increased the power-base of the medical profession, it also
increased their predisposition to psychological morbidity. Necessary intervention strategies were suggested.
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