Workplace Stress - Essay Example

?Introduction Workplace stress has been the major problem faced by the employees in profession that demands them to be alert, positive, decisive, responsive, and caring at every moment of their time. Hence, as the profession of medicine and nursing demands a lot of emotional, physical and psychological alertness on behalf of the nurses, they suffer a lot of stress at workplace. The stress at workplace affects the performance of nurses negatively. It also affects the performance of the company as the quality of the work, service and the staff can go down because of the stress suffered by the nurses. Due to immense stress, unexplained absenteeism, sickness, low performance, injuries, loss of interest in work etc., have become very common in health care services (Rout, U. and Rout, J. 2000, p. 77). Hence, it is extremely important to identify stressors and implement programs to reduce problems created due to stress, as it will help the organizations in managing workplace stress and to identify nurse’s perception of workplace stress. However, to find a solution to stress, it is very important to understand what ‘stress’ really is. Definition of Stress The meaning of ‘stress’ has been a matter concern for many researchers studying stress in human beings. There were so many aspects related to it that researchers found it difficult to define it properly (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.11). Lazarus (1966) suggested that it is a psychological aspect related to the adaptation of human being and animals to their surrounding and hence, wide range of phenomena that occur in human beings while adapting to the surrounds, should be considered as stress (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.11). Hence, stress is not just one thing but consists of many different aspects of psychological, emotional, physical and communicational level, which occur when dealing with adaptation to surrounding environment (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.12). The concept of stress is vast and involves all the aspects of human nature like emotions, thinking pattern, behavior, performance etc. Hence, as the stress affects every aspect of human personality, it is important to understand the core of it. The psychologists and researchers have defined stress as a ‘stimulus’, after studying the nature of stress (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.12). Hence, the events and the situations that occur in the surroundings are called as stress stimuli (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.12). However, the stress stimuli comes not only from external conditions but also the inner human drives like hunger, sex, thirst etc., are considered as stress stimuli as it has a potential to create stress in human beings (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.12). However, it was realized that stress is not just a stimuli but is also evident in the response as every stimuli creates a response (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.15). Hence, it was observed that the stress is cohesion of stimulus-response relationship in living beings and hence, it consists of both, the stimuli and the response in living beings (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.15). Hence, Miller (1953) has defined stress as “..any vigorous, extreme, or unusual stimulation which being a threat, causes some significant change in behavior…” (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.15). Bosowitz et al. (1955) has defined stress as “stimuli ‘more’ likely to produce disturbances” (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.15). The definitions show that stress is always a challenge for human beings and it is not easy to handle the emotional and psychological patterns that are created due to stress. According to Selye (1984), stress is “the response of an organism to any demand made upon it” (Howard 2003, p.93). Hence, it generally creates negative impact on the emotional and psychological health of a person (Howard 2003, p.93), as the demands and the pressure in the environment are, most of the times, unexpected and unwanted. Hence, there are many things, situations and events in the environment that work as stressors in human being’s life. Understanding what causes stress is very important if one has to find a solution to stress related problems at workplace. Stressors ‘Stressors’ is the term coined by Seyle to describe the environmental events that cause stress in human beings (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.12). According to Lazarus and Cohen (1977), the major changes (like natural disasters, war, catastrophes etc.) affecting large number of people, major changes in the environment affecting the individual or few people, and hassles related to daily lives, are three types of stressors (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.12). From the types of the stressors, it seems that the hassles related to mundane activities are less dramatic and serious, but according to Delongis (1982), they are the ones that play more important role in adaptation and health pattern of human beings (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.13). Hence, as workplace stress is the type of stress that is related to the hassles experienced in daily lives, it has a potential to cause extreme distress, health problem and depression in employees. Moreover, as the demands in the health services are too high, the stress in profession of nursing and caring is higher than most other professions. Hence, in order to help nurses to cope and reduce stress in their lives, it is important to know the stressors that play a major role in their work lives. It has been said that the common stressors in care home are related to administrative work, interpersonal relationships, service users etc. But most of the times, it is difficult to identify these stressors as they are considered common aspect of the health care services and are considered ‘normal’ by the care staff. However, the administration and the staff do not realize that these ‘normal’ things are causing serious negative effect on their lives. Moreover, the problem with stress in the workplace (care homes) is that it not only affects the individuals working in care homes but also affects the patients they support as a stressed care worker or nurse cannot perform his or her duties properly and cannot take decisions correctly. This issue has been widely discussed in nursing field but with no concrete solution. Hence, the incidents related to workplace stress are increasing in health service sector. As effect of stress is more extreme in the demanding job of health care, most of the investigation regarding workplace stress has focused on health care workers (Howard 2003, p.100). It has helped in understanding the work related stressors in detail. In interviews with nurses regarding the workplace stress, Dewe (1987) found that work pressures, conflicts of job related roles, lack of support from colleagues and seniors and working with seriously ill or dying patients, causes a lot of stress to nurse and carers (Howard 2003, p.100). According to Newman (1978), ambiguity, overload and conflict related to the responsibility of role is one of the most intense source of workplace stress among health care workers, as it causes lot of distress and job satisfaction in them (Murphy 2006, p.163). Working with terminally ill patients for a long, intense and stressful hours, work as major stressors in nurses (Howard 2003, p.101). According to Maslach (1982), the continuous and unending stress in the health care profession causes a lot of stress in health care workers and makes them to suffer from burnout and leave their jobs (Howard 2003, p.101). Janssen et al (1999) has observed that the most important reason for stress in health care workers is the knowledge that they are incapable of helping the dying patients and hence, do not have control over things happening around them (Howard 2003, p.101). The helplessness and the pessimism of the situation cause a lot of stress in nurses. Moreover, women working as nurse suffer from more risk of stress as they have more responsibilities compared to men. Pahl (1971) has found high amount of stress and emotional exhaustion in women who have to fulfill the demands of both, the family and work roles (Rout, U. and Rout, J. 2000, p. 38). Moreover, studies by McNalahan and Adams (1987) have revealed that worse mental stress and exhaustion is found more in married women having children than in married women with no children (Rout, U. and Rout, J. 2000, p. 38). Studies revealed that increase in stress and decrease in positive effects of job occurs when women get married and become mother (Rout, U. and Rout, J. 2000, p. 38). Hence, stress is suffered more intensely by female nurses than by male health care workers. Moreover, if untreated, stress can cause great harm by causing physical and psychological disorders in nurses. Effects of Stress Workplace stress experienced by nurses affects their health in a very negative way. According to Meadows et al. (2000), ignorance of positive aspects of performance and constant focus on the underachievement of workers, by their managers, lead to disappointment, job dissatisfaction and burnout in the health care professionals (Mallik, Hall and Howard 2009, p. 220). This leads to feeling of hopelessness, worthlessness and pessimism (Mallik, Hall and Howard 2009, p. 220). However, managers are so much under the pressure of competition that instead of trying to help the nurses by appreciating them and rewarding them, they assign more loads to their already overloaded responsibilities (Mallik, Hall and Howard 2009, p. 220). This increases the stress in nurses and can make them vulnerable to diseases caused by intense and prolonged stress. Prolonged stress is a harmful thing. The nature of the stress suffered by health care workers in care homes is prolonged stress (Howard 2003, p.102). Prolonged stress is known to cause post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in human beings (Howard 2003, p.102). According to WHO (1992), PTSD a “delayed and/or protracted response to a stressful event or situation (either short or long lasting) of an exceptionally threatening or catastrophic nature, which is likely to cause pervasive distress in almost anyone” (Howard 2003, p.102). This shows that every health care worker is at risk of developing PTSD as all the causal aspects discussed in the definition of PTSD are applicable to the workplace environment of care home and to the nurses. Moreover, the work conditions and challenges in health care workers working in areas like A&E make them vulnerable to develop PTSD (Howard 2003, p.102). If untreated, stress can cause many problems in nurses and they are as follows: 1. Nurses may relive the negative experience in their nightmare and when awake, may fear that it will occur again (Howard 2003, p.102) 2. Repression of distress and emotions leads to blunt, detached and numb emotional state of being (Howard 2003, p.102). 3. Restlessness and exaggerated reaction to unexpected events at workplace (Howard 2003, p.102). 4. The pessimism and the feeling of helplessness can cause anxiety, confusion and depression which leads to self blame, guilt and suicidal tendency (Howard 2003, p.102). This shows how serious and life threatening is the problem of workplace stress in care homes. However, it is also important to know that not all the stress related to job is negative and threatening. There are also some positive aspects to stress. Individual response A study by Lazarus and Eriksen (1952) has found that different people respond to stress in different way (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.7). The study found that the belief that a person’s performance goes down if he suffers from stress is wrong as some subjects in the study were found to be performing better under stress (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.7). This made clear that stress works differently in different people and one cannot predict the performance of a person on the basis of amount of stress he is going through (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.7). Hence, stress can bring out the positive aspects of personality in some people and in others it brings out the negative aspects. Moreover, Hebb (1971) introduced a concept of stress in which he said that for survival of human beings, certain amount of stress is necessary (Howard 2003, p.93). Hebb (1971) demonstrated this idea through the ‘arousal curve’ which showed that individual’s performance increases as the level of stress increases inside and around him (Howard 2003, p.93). However, it does not mean that stress does not affect the performance negatively. Hebb (1971) found that only a certain amount of stimulus increases the level of performance in human beings (Howard 2003, p.93). If the stress is applied continuously and the level goes beyond a certain point, then the performance not only deteriorates but also affects the human being negatively (Howard 2003, p.93). In a study of relationship between stress and fatigue, Schonpflug (1983) found that employees suffer from fatigue and lowering of problem solving skills when they work in an environment where they experience pressures of deadlines and when there is a lot of noise around them (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.8). Hence, there are many aspects of the environment which create stress in every employee, even though they differ in their response to stress (Lazarus and Folkman 1981, p.8). Hence, it is very important to treat stress on time, before it affects the mental and physical health of health care workers. Intervention Counseling is one of the most effective techniques to cope with stress (Howard 2003, p. 101). However, it is important for nurses to increase their self-esteem and be assertive to avail the service of counseling (Howard 2003, p. 101). Moreover, as role conflict is one of the major stressor in care homes, Gray-Toft and Anderson has suggested that to lower the nurse stress, the problem of conflict and ambiguity in role of nurses should be targeted first while planning intervention (Murphy 2006, p.163). Conclusion The discussion above shows that the problem of workplace stress among health care workers is extremely serious. It not only leads to cases of burnout and attrition, but also increases the risks of development of psychological and emotional disorders in nurses. Hence, the only solution to the problem of workplace stress is to reduce the stress in the environment by making counseling available to all the nurses, reduce workload and pressure, and by introducing programs that promote reward system, appreciation and growth. This will not only make the nurses positive but will also make them feel that their services are valued and they are the integral part of the organization. Hence, only by making nurses realize their value and by appreciating their work, stress at the care homes can be reduced in great way. References Howard, D. 2003. Stress. In: C. Brooker and M.Nicol, ed. Nursing Aduclts: The Practice of Caring. Maryland Heights: MOSBY. Lazarus, R. and Folkman, S., 1984. Stress, Appraisal and Coping. New York : Springer Publishing Company Ltd. Mallik, M., Hall, C. and Howard, D., 2009. Nursing Knowledge and Practice: Foundations for Decision Making. 3rd ed. Maryland Heights: BAILLIERE TINDALL Elsevier. Murphy, L., 2006. Job Stress in Health Care Workers. In: P. Carayon, ed. Handbook Of Human Factors And Ergonomics In Health Care And Patient Safety. Hillsdale: L. Erlbaum Associates Rout, U. and Rout, J., 2002. Stress Management for Primary Health Care Professionals. New York: Plenum Publishers. 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