Stress and Health: Project Summary - Essay Example

Stress and Health: Project Summary The goal of the stress management workshop is to equip the involved police officers with the knowledge on identification of causes of workplace stress, the consequences of stress and appropriate management. The SMART objectives of the workshop include: To equip police officers with the ability to identify possible stressors To educate police officers on identification of behavioral indications of stress To equip police officers with knowledge on workplace stress prevention and coping techniques The activities as relates to each objective are: Teaching on various categories of stressors to enable police officers identify possible mental, physical or emotional stressors Group discussion on their observations to enable police officers identify behavioral indications of stress Group discussion on personal experiences and testimonies from other people to equip police officers with knowledge on various techniques to prevent and cope with workplace stress These objectives are measurable. First, the ability of the police officers to identify stressors would be determined by their ability to identify stressors in given cases. The assessor would provide various cases on people with stress to the officers after identifying and categorizing them appropriately. This assessor would then collect feedback from the officers on the stressors identified. The officers would then be evaluated on their ability to accurately identify possible stressors and appropriately categorizing them as physical, emotional or mental. Secondly, their ability to identify behavioral changes that allude to stress would be determined by the ability of each officer to accurately give at least five behavioral changes exhibited in childhood, teenage and adulthood that give the indication of stress. The assessor would give random narrations of people’s lives from which the police officers would be expected to give possible behavioral changes as relates to stress. The assessor would qualify police officers who give most accurate responses as having understood the behavioral changes associated with stress. Finally, their acquisition of knowledge on various stress preventive and coping skills would be measured by their ability to give effective stress management and coping strategies based on the testimonies of stress episodes from their colleagues. The effectiveness of these suggested strategies would directly inform on the level to which the objectives of the program were met. The lessons learnt from this project play a critical role in shaping my professional and personal growth. Among these are the following three lessons: Stress is caused by a combination of various factors. This project has enabled me acknowledge the argument by Dempsey and Forst (2012) and Shrand and Devine (2012) that stress could result from external factors including threats and dangers from engagement in dangerous assignments; operational causes including the activities carried on a day-to-day basis; organizational stress resulting from the nature of work and working conditions and interpersonal stress from poor relations with the people. While these factors could cause stress solitarily, they could also act in a combined fashion. Understanding this would play a critical role in identifying the causes of stress in a stress victim. Żolnierczyk-Zreda (2002) appreciates that understanding the cause of stress serves as the basis for determining the most effective stress management approaches and coping strategies to recommend to the affected persons. This would particularly be critical when the selected coping strategy is problem-focused, where the aim is to eliminate the stressor. Even so, the emotion-focused coping would also call for understanding the cause of stress so as to effectively respond through the minimization, avoidance or reduction of the emotional response to stress. This would therefore make me effective professionally. This same information would be used for my personal assessment so as to identify the stressors that apply to my context. Using the knowledge gained on emotion-focused and problem-focused coping strategies, I would make the most appropriate stress coping and even preventive approaches. People can be trained on appropriate stress prevention and coping strategies. As supported by the knowledge gained from this project, there are various techniques that people could use to cope with stress and even keep it at bay. The findings documented by the National Center for Complementary Alternative Medicine, NCCAM (2013) and Ruotsalainen, Serra, Marine and Verbeek (2008) support the fact that people could be taught how to conform their lifestyles in ways that would minimize the negative consequences of stress. According to this organization, relaxation refers to the opposite of stress, which refers to fight or flight response according to Krantz, Thorn and Kiecolt-Glasser (2013). Just as in determining the coping strategy, understanding the cause of stress forms the basis of determining the stress coping or prevention training (Żolnierczyk-Zreda, 2002). People need training on physical exercises, diet, role clarity, shift rotation, management styles and adjustments for those joining a profession as a way to prevent stress or cope with stress (Gaines & Kappeler, 2011). Such training could be conducted through workshops where various approaches would be used to train the involved parties on the identification and management of stress, including teaching and group discussion. Group discussions particularly provide an appropriate platform for the involved persons to share their experiences from which the whole group learn from (Montgomery & Keegan, 2013). These training approaches learnt from the workshop setting project equipped me with the knowledge on how to effectively train various groups of people on stress management. Personally, I use this knowledge to adopt strategies that would minimize my chances of being stressed and coping with the existing stress. Effective stress management positively impacts on health. Whereas stress could be mistaken for a mere mental condition, it could affect the entire human physical well-being as well, particularly in a chronic condition (Olpin & Hesson, 2011). Stress has been linked to cardiovascular risks, body wear and tear and even sudden death (Krantz, Thorn, & Kiecolt-Glasser, 2013). Going by the argument by Bakker and Heuven (2006), stress could further affect even the health of the people around the victim. Therefore, stress management forms a critical part of promoting health of the victim and the community at large. In a profession where wellness is the major objective, I now appreciate stress as a major wellness deterrent. Therefore, even as I adopt techniques to cure human diseases, I should also adopt approaches to eliminate stress. This also means that for me to live a healthy life, I have to avoid stress triggers. Hence, this project was important to both my professional and personal success. References Bakker, A. B. & Heuven, E. (2006). Emotional dissonance, burnout, and in-role performance among nurses and police officers. International Journal of Stress Management, 13 (4), 423 – 440. Dempsey, S. J. & Forst, L. (2012). An introduction to policing (6th ed.). New York, NY: Cengage Learning. Gaines, L, K. & Kappeler, V. (2011). Policing in America (7th ed.). Waltham, MA: Elsevier. Krantz, D. S., Thorn, B., & Kiecolt-Glasser, J. (2013). How stress affects your health. American Psychological Association. Retrieved 15 January 2014 from http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/stress.aspx Montgomery, B. & Keegan, L. (2013). Holistic nursing: A handbook for practice. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2013, February). Relaxation techniques for health: An introduction. Retrieved 15 January 2014 from http://nccam.nih.gov/health/stress/relaxation.htm Olpin, M. & Hesson, M. (2011). Stress management for life: A research-based experiential approach. Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning. Ruotsalainen, J., Serra, C., Marine, A., & Verbeek, J. (2008). Systematic review of interventions for reducing occupational stress in health care workers. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 34 (3), 169-178. Shrand, J. & Devine, L. (2012). Manage your stress: Overcoming stress in the modern world. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. Żolnierczyk-Zreda, D. (2002). The effects of worksite stress management intervention on changes in coping styles. International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 8 (4), 465 – 482. Retrieved 15 January 2014 from http://www.ciop.pl/3506 Read More