title: The hospital doctor of today - still continuously on duty.
abstract: Norwegian hospital doctors emphasise the value of working hard and efficiently and of a high degree of attendance in the workplace. This helps establish social norms that guide behaviour within the professional culture. It is important to examine what consequences these values may entail when the doctor also needs to cater to his or her own needs.
  
  
  
  We conducted eight focus-group interviews and three individual interviews among a total of 48 senior consultants and specialty registrars working in the areas of surgery, psychiatry and internal medicine. Total N = 48; 56  % women. The interviews were analysed with the aid of systematic text condensation.
  
  
  
  When Norwegian hospital doctors wish to appear as good doctors, they see that this entails consequences for the interrelationships with colleagues, the management and the work-life balance. Conflicts of interest arose between senior consultants and specialty registrars. Management initiatives to deal with absence, adaptation of the job to the life stage of each individual doctor and increased management involvement among doctors were among the measures proposed.
  
  
  
  Better mutual knowledge between doctors and management with regard to each other’s values and responsibilities could constitute key premises for structural changes, for example in terms of better planning of leaves of absence and opportunities for adaptation of work schedules to the life stage of the persons concerned.
authors: Forskningsinstituttet Modum Bad Vikersund og Avdeling for medisinsk atferdsvitenskap Institutt for medisinske basalfag Det medisinske fakultet Universitetet i Oslo.
authors: Tuva Kolstad
authors: TK
authors: Hertzberg
authors: Lovisenberg diakonale høgskole Oslo.
authors: Helge
authors: H
authors: Skirbekk
authors: Avdeling for medisinsk atferdsvitenskap Institutt for medisinske basalfag Det medisinske fakultet Universitetet i Oslo.
authors: Reidar
authors: R
authors: Tyssen
authors: LEFO - Legeforskningsinstituttet Oslo.
authors: Olaf Gjerløw
authors: OG
authors: Aasland
authors: LEFO - Legeforskningsinstituttet Oslo og Forskningsinstituttet Modum Bad Vikersund.
authors: Karin Isaksson
authors: KI
authors: Rø
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D013502:General Surgery; D018578:Hospital-Physician Relations; D020445:Hospitalists / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007857:Leadership; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D009664:Norway; D015279:Organizational Culture; D010819:Physician's Role; D000068616:Professionalism; D011570:Psychiatry; D036301:Qualitative Research; D018582:Sick Leave; D066262:Social Norms; D012945:Social Values; D014937:Work / Q000523:psychology*; D000072358:Work-Life Balance; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology