The effect of job strain on British general practitioners' mental health (original) (raw)
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Stress Medicine, 1996
Questionnaires assessing levels of job satisfaction, mental well-being and sources of stress were distributed to a random sample of 850 general practitioners (GPs) in England. The final sample size was 414. Compared to a normative sample, male GPs exhibit significantly higher levels of anxiety, whereas female GPs compare favourably to the population norms. Job satisfaction levels among male and female GPs were significantly lower than when they were measured in 1987. Multivariate analysis revealed five major stressors that were predictive of high levels of job dissatisfaction and negative mental well-being; these were practice administration and demands of the job, interference with family and social life, routine medical work, interruptions and working environment. In addition, emotional involvement and type A behaviour were predictive of lack of mental well-being. It is concluded that there may be substantial benefit in providing training in management skills and introducing a stress management programme for GPs.
Occupational stress in health service workers in the UK
Stress Medicine, 1992
Levels of occupational stress were examined in 1176 employees of all occupational groups within one large UK health authority. In comparison with the most recently established normative group of workers from non-health care sectors, health workers reported significantly greater pressure at work but scored lower on measures of Type A behaviour pattern and employed coping strategies more frequently. The health care workers reported, in contrast with previous studies, fewer symptoms of mental ill-health and similar levels of job satisfaction. Job satisfaction and psychosomatic ill-health were related to sickness absence among health workers. Approximately one in 12 health workers had stress symptoms of equal magnitude to patients attending clinical psychology outpatient clinics. The major occupational groups within the health worker sample were compared on stress measures. General managers were found to report the lowest levels of pressure, were high on Type A (nearly as high as doctors), were found to be the most 'internal' in their perceived locus of control, had the lowest levels of ill-health symptoms, the highest levels of job satisfaction and the lowest sickness absence rate. Nurses reported the highest levels of pressure. Ancillary staff and scientists and technicians, on the other hand, had very low levels of job satisfaction and high sickness absence.
Predictive Influence of Job Stress on Mental Health and Work
2016
People react to stress in different ways, some coping much better than others and suffering fewer of the harmful effects in their behaviour and wellbeing. Just as stress differs as a function of the individual, it also differs as a function of one’s type of occupation. Some occupations are, of course, inherently more stressful than others. All of the stress-strain-health relationships have an obvious impact on the organization and industry. Occupational stress is becoming increasingly globalized and affects all countries, all professions and all categories of workers, as well as families and society in general. Job stressed has made the quality of service delivery of workers to reduce drastically and as such many rich people with high socio-economic status end up moving their family abroad when they are unhealthy. The poor men with low socio-economic status end up exposing themselves to low quality of service delivery in the hospitals. These always lead to the increment in the mater...
GLOBAL PUBLISHING HOUSE INDIA, 2017
Stress experience has a significant negative impact on a healthcare professional and his/her service delivery. Occupational stress has been a long-standing concern of the health care industry and is increasingly becoming a significant societal phenomenon in the current scenario. This is partly because medical service involves taking care of other peoples ' lives therefore mistakes or errors could be costly and sometimes irreversible. It is thus expected that the medical doctors, nurses, and other medical staff must be in a perfect state of mind devoid of morbid worries and anxieties. Health care workers have higher rates of substance abuse and suicide than other professions and elevated rates of depression and anxiety linked to job stress. In addition to psychological distress, other outcomes of job stress include burnout, absenteeism, employee intent to leave, reduced patient satisfaction, and diagnosis and treatment errors. It calls for immediate interventions to address its surge and to promote mental wellness. being of nurses, doctors, and other healthcare workers, and understanding the factors leading to occupational stress among health care professionals. The purpose of this study is to make a critical review of the existing literature and identify the sources of occupational stress, identify the adverse health effects of occupational stress, and recommend work practices to reduce occupational stress.
Constructions of Occupational Stress: Nuisances, Nuances or Novelties?
Research Companion to Organizational Health Psychology, 2005
we should make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. (Albert Einstein) Overview The concept of stress is as elusive as it is pervasive. Discourses of stress in general and occupational stress in particular are so powerful that they are 'seemingly written into and all over our daily lives' (Newton, 1995, p. 1). But what is stress? Is it a stimulus or a response? Is it an objective, quantifiable, environmental demand or a subjective cognitive appraisal of environmental conditions? Is stress universal or personal? Does stress need 'managing' and, if so, is it a public responsibility or a private concern? In order to answer some of these questions, it is necessary to deconstruct the concept and find its core. This is no easy matter. Heisenberg (1958) reminds us that even 'natural science does not simply describe and explain nature; it is part of the interplay between nature and ourselves; it describes nature as exposed to our method of questioning'. A construct like occupational stress has been shaped not only by our method of questioning, but by powerful political, cultural, social and economic forces in which work occurs and in which people respond to their work experiences. In this chapter, we will briefly review the major ways of constructing occupational stress, with particular focus on emergent issues, problematic areas, and less used paradigms, before attempting a synthesis of this difficult and complex field. Occupational stress was initially explained and managed within a psychomedical model. This model focused on personal attributes such as personality traits (Type A behavior pattern, neuroticism, negative affectivity, extraversion, introversion, hardiness, locus of control) and coping styles (active, passive, problem or emotion focused and so on) rather than job and organizational characteristics. This construction of work stress made it a 'personal trouble' rather than a 'public concern' and several professions (medicine, psychology, psychiatry, human resource management) have greatly benefited from such an approach. In this model personality deficits or vulnerabilities were considered to be causal, or at least precursors to the experience of occupational stress. On the other hand, the stressor and strain approach attributed the cause of psychological and behavioral strain to work stressors. This view of occupational stress was adopted by the Scandinavian school (see for, example, Levi, 1999). It focuses primarily on work characteristics and the epidemiology of occupational health. Rather than treating the individual, the focus of intervention is work reform. Research into the role of organizational factors in the etiology of occupational stress has followed a similar trajectory to the psychomedical model. Ever lengthening lists of putative factors have been identified. In two early reviews of occupational stress, Cooper (1983; 1985) summarized and categorized six groups of organizational variables, outlined below, that may cause stress in the workplace: 20