Social well-being of doctors of Rostov region during the COVID-19 pandemic: age features

Doctors as a professional group found themselves in a difficult situation during the pandemic. This makes it necessary to analyze their social well-being in order to identify their adaptive potential. In the article, based on the results of in-depth interviews, the author shows that doctors have different levels of social well-being, and age plays a significant role here. Doctors up to 25 years of age perceive themselves through the prism of professional development, and the pandemic situation is seen as a challenge and an opportunity to prove themselves. The estimates of a group of respondents aged 26-35 are more restrained and based on a complex interweaving of personal and external factors. The informants of the 36-45-year-old group already clearly share the parameters of social and professional well-being. They evaluate the first one positively and the second one negatively. The responses of groups of respondents aged 46-55, 56 and older demonstrate a reduced emotional background in doctors, the presence of frustrations, apathy. The findings suggest the need to take into account the factor of age and career stage when developing mechanisms to stimulate the positive effects of the professional activities of physicians