We spend much of daily lives working. In fact, Americans spend about eight-times as many hours working as they do eating and drinking (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013). Approximately seven in ten Americans report that they experience symptoms of stress (Anderson, Belar, Breckler, Nordal, Ballard, Bufka, Bossolo & Bethune, 2013). Stress is elicited by a variety of psychological stimulus associated with our jobs, our residences, our social interactions, and the activities we engage in (p. 249, Franken, 2007). Many Americans live with the burden of an unsatisfying job as well as a stressful workplace. An online survey of 1,848 people in the United States, conducted by the American Psychological Association, found that 74 percent of people name work as their primary source of stress (p. 284, Schultz and Schultz, 2010). In the workplace, stress is reflected in lower productivity, reduced motivation as well as increased errors and accidents (p. 284, Schultz and Schultz, 2010). Excessive stress can lead to many adverse consequences. When people experience too much stress they can also suffer from psychological consequences such as depression and sleep disorders (p. 191, Griffin & Moorhead, 2014). Research shows that stress can even contribute to the development of major illnesses, such as heart disease, stroke, and obesity, as well as exacerbate existing illnesses (Anderson et al., 2013). Although all professions are susceptible to work-related stress, researchers have determined that the nursing profession is particularly stressful (Villani, Grassi, Cognetta, Toniolo, Cipresso, & Riva, 2013). Some argue that because of increasing demands, nurses are more susceptible to exhaustion, anxiety and stress (Aarons, & Sawitzky, 20... ... middle of paper ... ...ychologist-Manager Journal, 16(2), 112-130. doi:10.1037/h0094961 Lo Bue, S., Taverniers, J., Mylle, J., & Euwema, M. (2013). Hardiness promotes work engagement, prevents burnout, and moderates their relationship. Military Psychology, 25(2), 105-115. doi:10.1037/h0094952 McIntosh, B., & Sheppy, B. (2013). Effects of stress on nursing integrity. Nursing Standard, 27(25), 35-39. Schultz, D., & Schultz, S. (2010). Psychology and work today. (10 ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, (2013). American time use survey. Retrieved from website: http://www.bls.gov/tus/charts/ Villani, D., Grassi, A., Cognetta, C., Toniolo, D., Cipresso, P., & Riva, G. (2013). Self-help stress management training through mobile phones: An experience with oncology nurses. Psychological Services, 10(3), 315-322. doi:10.1037/a0026459
Nurses often experience heavy workloads and time constraints in the workplace due to nursing shortages and a high nurse-to-patient ratio mandated by the government. Newly graduated nurses are especially prone to burnout related to greater workloads due to the increasing workload demands and no additional resources to support the nurse (Rudman & Gustavsson, 2011, p.304). This contributes to increased burnout rates in newly graduated nurses by creating role stress and adding additional time constraints and stressors to an already overwhelmed transitioning graduate nurse.
Vargus, Crsitina , Guillermro A. Canadas, Raimundo Aguayo, Rafael Fernandez, and Emilia I. de la Fuente. "Which occupational risk factors are associated with burnout in nursing? A meta-analytic study." International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology 14.1 (2014): 28-38. Ebscohost. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
In the recent past, nursing has come to the forefront as a popular career amongst students across the globe. The demand for nurses has kept increasing gradually over the years. In fact, the number of registered nurses does not meet the demand of the private and public health sector. This phenomenon has resulted in a situation where the available registered nurses have to work extra hours in order to meet the patients’ needs. With this in mind, the issue of nurse fatigue has come up as a common problem in nursing. According to the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), nurse fatigue is “a feeling of tiredness” that penetrates a persons physical, mental and emotional realms limiting their ability to function normally. Fatigue does not just involve sleepiness as has been assumed before. It involves utter exhaustion that is not easily mitigated through rest. When nurses ignore the signs of fatigue, they risk the development of chronic fatigue and other health problems that may not be easily treated. Additionally, fatigue may cause nurses to lose more time at work as they may have to be away from work for several days to treat it. The issue of nurse fatigue has permeated the nursing profession to the extent of causing errors in the work performed by nurses. Fatigue causes a decrease in a nurse’s ability to make accurate decisions for themselves and their patients. It is therefore important to find ways to curb nurse fatigue such that it is no longer a problem. Nurse fatigue is a danger to the patients, organizations and to the nurses themselves and must be mitigated adequately.
People are living longer and healthier lives now more than ever before. Much of this can be attributed to the advances in modern medicine over the past few decades. However, in healthcare, there is now a growing population of patients that are becoming sicker and more complex to care for. With the new generation of sick patients present in the hospitals, today’s nurses are stressed and fatigued more than ever before. Much of the stress and fatigue can be attributed to the nurse to patient ratio and the associated workload.
These conditions require nurses to possess exceptional coping skills (Bryant, 1994). Stress can be perceived as a stimulus or a response. Sullivan (1993) identifies stress as a very real experience, but most experiences are not stressful in them and are only perceived as such by the individual. Some nurses may just be "tougher" than others. Hardiness may be the key personality characteristic not just for preventing emotional exhaustion, but for turning stressful events into meaningful challenges (Bryant,
This research paper concerns how individuals perceive stress and the serious effect on their psychological thought process and physical and mental health and how they can cope with their anxiety driven thoughts. Research was gathered using printed material obtained at the Syracuse Bird Library, and also using various online sources and scholarly journals. One printed source written by Frank Campbell addresses the health effects stress can have on an individual while author Richard Lazarus explores coping mechanisms individuals can use to attempt to get rid of the their stress. Author Bruce G. Charlton in his publication in the Journal of Medical Ethics, claims that stress is an empty word, with little value and explains the origin of the Stress. Robert Lazarus explains the concept of stress along with the ambiguity associated with the word. Ruth O’Hara explains what situations causes stress. While authors Carolyn Aldwin and Sandi Mann discuss coping and how to alleviate stress.
My term paper is on the topic of stress. Not just normal stress but I am focusing on stress with in women, young and old. For this term paper I am using three articles that are studies from professional psychologist on how stress with other conditions affects the women's health and emotion's of women. My last article is an interview form of six women with significant stress which induced health issues and they fought back, and developed their own arsenal of stress-busting habits. I will summaries the articles in the following paragraphs.
(AC 2)There are many causes of stress in the modern society due to the higher expectations and demands from different aspects of life. Work-related stress is one common cause of stress. People feel stressed out at their workplace for various reasons. For example, long working hours is one type of stressor because workers are overworked, which leads to...
In today’s health care environment, work-related stress plays a major role in the performance of nursing professionals. The nursing profession is significantly affected by the effects of stress and this often determines the quality of care that patients receive. Work-related stress develops when an individual loses the ability to cope with increasing service demands, overwhelming responsibilities, and loss of control over their environment. Preceding research has proven that high stress levels result in more staff absences, staff turnover, diminished job satisfaction, and additional costs which in return only further exacerbates staff stress levels (Wright, 2014). Nursing managers can help to control how stress affects the staff and provide ways for the staff to cope effectively. Although nurses are responsible for maintaining their health, managers can significantly reduce stress by ensuring that the employees are well educated, internal support resources are available, and external employee assistance programs are provided. The quality of leadership and management support provided to the staff can significantly alleviate stress in the health care field (Wright, 2014). By decreasing the workload, reducing service demands, and implementing effective coping strategies, stress among nurses can be decreased and the quality of patient care will improve considerably.
Being a nurse will require a number of different tasks to be done. Some of which are “evaluating and assessing the patient’s illness and recording the data needed to provide treatment. Also, what is needed to succeed in nursing is being able to provide emotional help to the patients and provide and nice calm and helpful atmosphere”. (Statistics) Nursing is a very interactive job that requires a lot of emotional support for the patients and at times, other nurses as well. It is very common for nurses to experience fatigue, both emotionally and physically.
The first stress assessment that I took was the stress assessment rating scale. The assessment consisted of questions related to how content you are and asked about both positive and negative coping mechanisms. They asked a series of questions and asked on a scale of 1-5 if you never (5), rarely (4), sometimes (3), often (2) and always (1) do something. At the end of the assessment you add up all your scores and find your results related to that number. I received a score of 33 which falls in the range of learning. It states “You are managing to a considerable extent. There is some room for improvement. You will benefit from taking a Transformation
Factors such as, heavy workloads, stress, job dissatisfaction, frequent medical errors, and intention of leaving the job are all common for nurses to experience, especially during the nursing shortage crisis. Not only do the nurses suffer during a shortage, but the patients ' health outcomes suffer even more. For instance, there are higher rates of infectious diseases and adverse patient outcomes, such as urinary tract infections (UTIs), upper gastrointestinal bleeding, shock, pneumonia, prolonged hospital stays, failure to rescue, and mortality. As a result, this leads to higher re-admission rates for patients. Furthermore, high patient-to-nurse ratios cause heavy workloads due to an inadequate supply of nurses, an increased demand for nurses, a reduction in staffing and an increase in overtime, and a shortened length of stay for patients. Without the heavy workloads that nurses have to endure on a daily basis, there would more time for nurses to communicate more effectively with physicians, insurance companies, and patients and their families. Those heavy workloads are the result of hospitals reducing the nursing staff and implementing mandatory overtime policies just to meet unexpectedly high demands. Unfortunately, the nursing shortage has affected nurses ' mental and physical health. For example, the most common health concerns for nurses include cardiovascular health, occupational injuries and illnesses, and emotional and physical exhaustion. Therefore, safe-staffing ratios/levels have to become the main
Recent research (Jeanne Segal et al. 2012) suggested that in this difficult economy, many are finding it harder than ever to cope with stress in the workplace. Regardless of occupation, seniority, or salary level, instead of feeling ready and relaxed, people are more and more exhausted and out of control. While some stress is a normal part of the workplace, excessive stress can interfere with productivity and reduce physical and emotional health.
Park, C. L., Wright, B. E., Pais, J., & Ray, D. M. (2016). Daily Stress and Self-Control., 35, 738-753.
Everyday, there are workers who come home from their jobs with a high amount of health issues. Headaches, aching muscles, exhaustion, and many more health issues have workers wondering why this is happening. All of these symptoms can be linked to stress in the workplace. Job stress has become more of a problem than ever before. Numerous studies show that job stress is the major source of stress for American adults and that it has escalated progressively over the past few decades (“Workplace Stress,” 2004). Stress has become more common and costly in the workplace not only for the workers, but also the companies. What is considered stress in the workplace? Many companies everyday are dealing with issues related to stress in the workplace. For example, the Blackpool Fylde and Wyre NSH Trust Foundation Hospital noticed there were issues with stress when people began calling out sick. Their consultant for occupational health began to see a pattern of worker stress that might be the case. With stress being such a big issue in the workplace, are there ways a company can decrease the amount of stress?