stress

In health care, job stress can take on particular characteristics in relation to the specific professionalism required. Occupational stress can depend on: medical error, work injury, work conflict, impairment of physician’s capacity, reduced quality of life, and organic disease.

Excessive workload, inadequate supervision, and a stressful work environment are among the recognized underlying causes of medical error. Professional competence and work environment, therefore, seem to be intertwined in dynamic terms. A stressful work environment affects working relational life with an exponential increase in conflict between workers. This affects the physician’s competence and ability to empathize with the patient. The doctor will have other things to think about and will not be able to be calm and relate to the person in front of him or her. Cigarette smoking, irritability, cynicism, and alcohol or drug abuse are just some of the consequences of work stress. The health company must be able to prevent such situations and plan actions to monitor workers’ stress.

Source : I don’t have time for… As wear and tear cure: operators health care under stress by Ferdinando Pellegrino

Very often in work contexts it is possible for uncomfortable situations to arise, also related to mental illness. This negatively affects the worker’s well-being through increased cigarette consumption or alcohol abuse.

The experience of distress begins with a loss of motivation, a drop in interest in work, and a demotivation toward the work activity, to an outward attribution of blame. This attitude appears as a defense against a frustrating and unrewarding work situation. If one likes the work, but experiences it with dissonance, what comes out is a deleterious effect on the individual’s emotional set-up. Even at the corporate level there can be devastating consequences, which reduce the productivity of the company. Workers under stress feel as if they are suffocated by time and commitments. Under normal conditions, the individual should be able to manage his or her stress level, implement defensive strategies, and effectively use his or her psychological defense mechanisms. However, when stress becomes excessive, it turns into crisis and distress factors. Each individual reacts in his or her own way, stands in relation to himself or herself and the environment, and responds to the stimuli of daily life. Of course, there are extreme situations towards which any living being would have difficulty adapting and surviving, but it is possible to observe that each individual responds differently from the other. When faced with stimuli, the individual takes action to provide appropriate responses. The stimulus can be a thought, an emotion or any other life event. Stimuli are evaluated in relation to one’s way of relating to reality in particular ways.

Hans Selye described in the “general syndrome of adaptation” some typical phases of stress. At first there is a alarm phase, in which the individual assesses the stimulus, takes note of it, and takes prepare for it. The second phase is that of resistance, aimed at to the preservation of equilibrium. Finally, there is the depletion phase, where the energy reserves may be depleted. To manage these phases, the organism activates biological, behavioral, and psychological modifications.

Stress cannot be avoided; in fact, it is precisely because of the stress that we can survive. Stress is the modulator of functions biological and psychological of the individual, helps to live well and give the BEST. A certain degree of stress has positive effects in that it helps the people to improve in critical situations, making them become more alert and Refining concentration skills.

Important reflections can be made

• Each individual has a subjective limit of stress tolerance
• A persistent subjective condition of tension breeds frustration
• Overfitting conditions are nefarious

Stress knows no exceptions: every individual has a limit, beyond which he can no longer handle the tension. It is important know this threshold and be aware of the level of tension, in how stress can be silent and not immediately perceived.

Source : I don’t have time for… As wear and tear cure: operators health care under stress by Ferdinando Pellegrino

Keith Yamashita and Sandra Spataro in their book “On-Off” stated the problem of personal motivation in the context of a group and determined some strategies against work stress.

A sense of frustration can be identified in any work situation, leading individuals to feel fatigued and distressed. Many studies report work stress, but often do not consider the reasons why, which can be found in personality or organizational characteristics.

Added to this is the pressure related to professional responsibility whereby physicians are increasingly forced to engage in defensive behaviors that fuel anxiety and unease. The physician is under great pressure from external factors, both organizational and social, which inevitably affect well-being and professional effectiveness. Many studies show us that it is possible to work while managing stress better, deriving gratification from work activity.

Source : I don’t have time for… How it wears out healing: health care workers under stress by Ferdinando Pellegrino