Perceived Social and Emotional Support from Co-Workers and Supervisors and Occupational Stress in Emergency Physicians: A Pre-Pandemic National Cross-Sectional Study from Slovenia

Background/Objectives: Emergency physicians report high levels of occupational stress, but its organisational determinants remain under-investigated, particularly in small national systems. This exploratory, pre-pandemic study examined occupational stress among emergency medicine specialists in Slovenia, hypothesising that lower perceived support from supervisors and from co-workers would be associated with greater stress. Methods: All 86 emergency medicine specialists registered in Slovenia were surveyed in March–April 2019, and 45 participated (52.3%). Stress and support were measured with the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire and analysed with correlation coefficients, t-tests and Mann–Whitney tests, with multivariable regression as a sensitivity analysis. Results: Support was perceived as lowest from supervisors and highest from partners, family and friends. Lower perceived supervisor support was associated with poor interpersonal relationships at work (r = 0.568), poor job fit, a poor work environment, lower job control and total stress (r = 0.488); lower co-worker support was only associated with poor job fit and work perceived as not worth doing. Neither was associated with the intrinsic demands of the work. After adjustment for sex, age and tenure, supervisor support (β = 0.49) and female sex (β = 0.34) remained independently associated with total stress (adjusted R2 = 0.30). Conclusions: The hypothesis was supported for supervisor support but only partly for co-worker support. The small sample, multiple comparisons and cross-sectional design make these findings exploratory and specific to the pre-pandemic period. As perceived support is organisationally modifiable, leadership and peer support are identified as targets for future intervention research, and multinational studies in comparable emergency systems are warranted.