Healthcare professionals are faced with stress due to their daily working environment and can be referred to as work-related stress. Occupation stress can be caused by factors such as heavy patient load, burnouts, high expectations from the management team and the patients and work life interfering with personal life. Benson and Casey (2006) define stress as a state of tension that an individual experience when the ability to cope with a certain condition is insufficient hence developing constraint and a confronted opportunity. Stress can be acquired from an imbalance perceived by a worker through the demand made and the resources available to perform the demand.
Healthcare professionals can acquire stress through burnouts. Job burnout is a situation where an individual experiences exhaustion and lack of interest in work tasks due to subjections to an extended time frame. As a result, healthcare professional job performance starts to decline. A worker may lack interest in their job due to lack of motivation from the management team and fellow workers hence experiencing frustration (Ballard, 2009). Burnout may result in chronic stress thus causing the health professional (HP) not to concentrate during working hours. However, the correct relationship between the HP and management board provides a calm atmosphere and a conducive working environment that could help control stress level.
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Another cause of stress among HP is when they are subjected to heavy workload, insufficient time to complete a task to meet a difficult deadline and high organizational expectations. This may result in suboptimal patient care and high rates of errors (Michael, 2012). The organization should encourage teamwork among workers and involvement in decision making in matters that directly affect the HPs.
When working life crosses over into personal life, then the rate of stress in HP is likely to increase. In this case, when an HP does not engage in personal activities that involve relaxation of the mind and functions that are beneficial to an individual’s personal development, the working environment may create boredom in participation in healthcare activities (Beaumont & Martin, 2016). To reduce the stress of this kind, the management should be able to schedule enough resting days of each HP after discussions with the individual.
In conclusion, workplace stressors are among the reasons that health care quality is declining. HPs should be involved in mindfulness programs and programs that are aimed at improving emotional intelligence.
References
Ballard, D. (2009). Difference initial effects on response style and psychological distress Poster. Worcester, MA.
Beaumont, E. and Martin, C.J.H. (2016). The art in Psychotherapy: A proposal to support student therapists to develop compassion for self and others through Compassionate Mind Training. UK.
Benson and, Casey. (2006). Stress Management Strategies.
Michael, F. (2012). Job Occupation Misfit as an Occupational Stressor. Journal of vocational behavior.
