Pamela's Theory Of Workplace Stress

Within the social work profession, there are times when work-place stress becomes very overwhelming, which can cause serious effects to the psychological, mental, and physical well-being of the individual. Steiber and Pichler

Nurse and doctors both are important part of a hospital and there occupation is full of stress despite of different level of employment (Scott, 2013). Stress is classified as a precursor or stimulus in response to certain situations, interactions and harsh behaviors. It can also be defined as psychological behavior of a person in response to the environmental condition risking his or her life in danger. In hospital setup, there are certain issues relating to patients, long work hours, misinterpretations, shortage of medications and shortage of instruments that create stress for doctors and nurses. Such events predispose the stress factor and can be threating.

Although aggression and violence from patients and visitors are cause for concerns, nurses reported hostility among colleagues, managers and other professionals have been the most concern and an impact to nurses’ society. Incivility defines as “a rude or unsociable speech or behavior (Merriam 2010). The types of behaviors that constitute between nurses can be due to stress, heavy workload, bullying, harassment and aggressions. Incivility and bullying in nursing are complex problems that have garnered much attention in recent years (Felbinger 2008). Emerging evidence suggests that incivility in the workplace has significant implications from nurses, patients, and health care organizations causing a high turnover rate.

OCCUPATIONAL STRESS ISSUES AMONG NURSES The health care industry has had to deal with occupational stress factors over a long period of time. Studies have shown that, over time, health care workers are higher up the ladder with issues related to substance abuse, suicide and elevated forms of depression and anxiety linked to occupational stress. In addition to the aforementioned psychological factors, burnout, absenteeism, reduced patient satisfaction and treatment/ diagnosis errors are also resulting outcomes of occupational stress. Nursing is generally perceived as a very demanding profession.

Management must also tend to the needs of those nurses suffering from compassion fatigue. Studies confirm that caregivers play host to a high level of compassion fatigue. Day in, day out, workers struggle to function in care giving environments that constantly present heart wrenching, emotional challenges. Affecting positive change in society, a mission so vital to those passionate about caring for others, is perceived as elusive, if not impossible. This painful reality, coupled with first-hand knowledge of society 's flagrant disregard for the safety and wellbeing of the feeble and frail, takes its toll on everyone from full time employees to part time volunteers.

Two concepts are centralized to The Lazarus psychological stress theory: Appraisal (i.e., individuals’ evaluation of the significance of what is happening for their well-being, and Coping (i.e., individuals’ efforts in thought and action to manage specific demands). The theory states that stress is regarded as a relational concept meaning stress is not defined as a specific pattern of physiological, behavioural, or subjective reasons. Instead, stress is viewed as a relationship between individuals and their environment (Krohne, 2002). Likewise, the study is focused on stress, the factors that affect it, and the environment that stress inhabits in.

Occupational Stress is defined as, “the psychological state that is or represents an imbalance or mismatch between people’s perceptions of the demands on them (relevant to work) and their ability to cope with those demands” (Miller 2000). It is an individual based, affect overloaded experience associated with stressors that are perceived and interpreted subjectively and uniquely by everyone. Stress in HIV/AIDS care can be caused due to a variety of factors like client overload, demands of the caregiving activities ranging from physical and personal care of the clients to around the clock monitoring and care of the severely ill, daily domestic chores of the caregiver’s own household, fear and uncertainty about HIV contagion and their own health, strong feelings of guilt, anger and helplessness etc. Insufficient compensation and encouragement are also leading factors for stress. Whereas, burnout is the exhaustion of physical or emotional strength because of prolonged stress or frustration which has been detected in a wide variety of health care providers.

(Ma, et al., 2015). Additionally, there is a link between PTSD, depression, and metabolic syndrome,

To support this claim Watson stated that ‘nurses who are not able to practice caring can become hardened, brittle, worn down, and robot like. (Watson p.467). Watson calm that patients heal are directly affected by how they feel about their current situation. Therefore, it is the nurses and healthcare practitioners’ duty to ensure that patients are comfortable and are properly cared for. Due to overload, nurses and practitioner experience reoccurring errors, which place patients and healthcare workers’ life, at risk.

This situation can be influenced by the pressure and emotional trauma on wives work and their communication skills(6). One of these