Occupational stress is one of the most widespread problems related to the issues the employees face at the workplace. There are numerous causes of occupational stress such as occupational burnout, toxic workplace, psychological stress, and unsafe occupational environment, which may include workplace violence. Therefore, the scholars emphasize the importance of the adequate management of occupational stress, including ensuring a safe workplace and teaching stress-coping techniques. This paper aims to discuss the issue of occupational stress in the health care sector and its management.
Causes of the Occupational Stress
Among the most common causes of stress, scientists cite work organization, finance, and communication. Equally important, stressors have also been found to be associated with physical and emotional risks. The highest levels of stress are observed among primary care physicians, due to the nature of their work (Trifunovic et al., 2017). At the same time, working in the field of palliative care is especially emotionally and physically difficult. Scientists, however, note a significant difference in stress levels for primary and secondary health care, as well as a difference in the types of stressors. In particular, primary care physicians and nurses cite on-call shifts, administrative overload, and inadequate work environments as the most painful causes of stress. Based on the information presented above, obtained from primary interviews and observations of nurses and doctors, it can be concluded that stress factors are a continuation of work duties and are associated with their inadequate organization.
Toxic Workplace
Workplace violence is the foremost reason for the toxic workplace, as reported by scholars. More precisely, workplace violence directly influences sustainable labor productivity and occupational stress. Violence and toxic environments also reduce health worker morale, according to data collected from 15 hospitals in Pakistan (Rasool et al., 2020). Notably, low productivity is associated with effects such as stress, anxiety, irritability, depression, low engagement, absenteeism, and distractions from work duties. It should also be borne in mind that workers often perceive occupational stress as a stigma and can lead to harassment in the workplace, leading to a toxic work environment. Therefore, scientists conclude that happy and healthy employees are more productive, which reflects the demand for a culture of a safe work environment. In other words, since occupational stress and toxic work environments surprisingly have a causal relationship, the latter can also be mitigated by introducing good stress management work practices.
Occupational Burnout
Occupational burnout is one of the causes of stress and is extremely popular among healthcare professionals. Patient workloads are often irregular, especially in challenging environments, such as during a pandemic, in emergency rooms, maternity wards, or when working with patients with mental disorders. Cancer ward work is also considered one of the most labor-intensive types of care, as nurses demonstrate emotional labor in dealing with patients (Zaghini et al. 2020). Nurses may fail to maintain a safe work environment and to take care of themselves, including adequate sleep and nutrition. The researchers note that nursing burnout is directly related to emotional labor and degrades the quality of services provided to patients. Equally important, occupational stress is another result of occupational burnout, according to the study results.
Interestingly, scientists have found that physical activity helps reduce the negative effects of occupational stress and occupational burnout, as it is an effective stress-coping technique. The study was conducted with the participation of 309 Swiss workers to investigate the relationship between physical activity, occupational stress, and burnout symptoms among employees (Gerber et al., 2020). As a result, scientists have documented results that support a positive link between stress and burnout. But more importantly, they also found a strong negative relationship between burnout and physical activity, even in the presence of a stressful condition. Higher daily physical activity, which participants performed on their initiative, was associated with fewer burnout symptoms. Scientists have concluded that physical activity during free time helps reduce the effects of burnout and stress. Therefore, it can also be assumed that the introduction of physical activity in the workplace may be a step to justify the reduction of working hours corresponding to the time spent on physical activity.
Psychological Stress
Psychological stress in the workplace, especially in healthcare, can be associated not only with burnout but also with workplace violence (WPV). According to a study conducted with Chinese doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel, there is a link between workplace violence, general health, sleep quality, and psychological stress (Sun et al., 2017). There are different types of workplace violence, and scientists have ranked them under a decrease in the frequency of prevalence: verbal insults (76.2%), difficulties caused (58.3%), denigrating reputation (40.8%), mobbing (40, 2%), bullying (27.6%), physical violence (24.1%) and sexual harassment (7.8%) ”(Sun et al., 2017, p. 20). Scientists note that in China, doctors often face workplace violence from patients and relatives of patients. Therefore, the study authors concluded that there is a requirement for a safe work environment for Chinese healthcare workers.
Stress Management
Remarkably, stress management is the key to solving the problem. Nurse managers are employees whose work duties include responsibility for managing work stress. Typically, work stress can be reduced by reducing the workload, replenishing resources, and improving the financial health of the hospital. Other indirect ways to reduce stress are by encouraging work control and increasing social support. Scientists emphasize that nurse managers fulfill the objectives of the supporting structures of the hospital environment, as they ensure the optimization of daily practice (Labrague et al., 2018). Known ways to optimize performance are staffing, support services, organizational resources, leadership training, and stress management. Scientists have also drawn attention to the health hazards of the nurse managers associated with their professional duties.
Occupational Safety and Health
Interestingly, scientists explain that workplace safety issues have been monitored since the mid-1800s. In those days, the main controls included factory laws, accident research, and workers’ compensation. In the early 20th century, labor advocates began to focus more on organizational security in general, shifting focus away from specific cases (Hoffman et al., 2017). In particular, in the mid-20th century, training in safety training was widespread, and at the end of the 20th century, most research began to focus on the study of leadership practices and the organizational security climate. As a result, most organizations today are focusing on implementing organizational safety practices and improving the organizational climate to overcome occupational stress and burnout problems.
Thus, the issue of occupational stress and its management in the healthcare environment was discussed. Typically, occupational stress goes along with occupational burnout and may cause the development of a toxic environment at the workplace. Therefore, the nurse managers are obliged to implement the stress management practices, which may feature the improved organization of the working processes or the introduction of the stress-coping practices like the 15-30 minute pauses devoted to the physical activity.
References
Gerber, M., Schilling, R., Colledge, F., Ludyga, S., Pühse, U., & Brand, S. (2020). More than a simple pastime? The potential of physical activity to moderate the relationship between occupational stress and burnout symptoms. International Journal of Stress Management, 27(1), 53.
Hoffman, D. A., Burke, M. J., & Zohar, D. (2017). 100 years of occupational safety research: From basic protections and work analysis to a multilevel view of workplace safety and risk. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(3), 375.
Labrague, L. J., McEnroe‐Petitte, D. M., Leocadio, M. C., Van Bogaert, P., & Cummings, G. G. (2018). Stress and ways of coping among nurse managers: An integrative review. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(7-8), 1346-1359.
Rasool, S. F., Wang, M., Zhang, Y., & Samma, M. (2020). Sustainable work performance: the roles of workplace violence and occupational stress. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(3), 912.
Sun, T., Gao, L., Li, F., Shi, Y., Xie, F., Wang, J., & Fan, L. (2017). Workplace violence, psychological stress, sleep quality and subjective health in Chinese doctors: a large cross-sectional study. BMJ Open, 7(12), 17-22.
Trifunovic, N., Jatic, Z., & Kulenovic, A. D. (2017). Identification of causes of the occupational stress for health providers at different levels of health care. Medical Archives, 71(3), 169.
Zaghini, F., Biagioli, V., Proietti, M., Badolamenti, S., Fiorini, J., & Sili, A. (2020). The role of occupational stress in the association between emotional labor and burnout in nurses: A cross-sectional study. Applied Nursing Research, 54, 151277.