The Work Stress and Mental Health Training for Healthcare Providers course is designed to educate healthcare providers (HCP) on how to cope with work-related issues and mental health issues developed in the workplace.
Work stress includes the harmful physical and emotional responses that happen when the requirements of a job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker. It can lead to poor mental and physical health. Mental health includes a person’s psychological, emotional, and social well-being and affects how we feel, think, and act. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) defines occupational stress as: “The harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker.” Positive or negative stressors might differ between healthcare vocations and even within occupations depending on the work being performed. Stress levels among medical personnel may also be impacted by a hospital’s level of patient care.
What You’ll Learn
- Work-related stress and mental health issues
- Effects of stress on patient care
- Physician burnout and compassion fatigue
- Employee and employer action steps for burnout and compassion fatigue
Details
Course length: 45 minutes; CEU: 0.75.
Languages: American English
Key features: Audio narration, learning activity, and post-assessment
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Work Stress Factors
There are several workplace factors that can lead to increased stress in staff. In particular, job demands are a common cause of work stress. These can range from an overload of tasks to a lack of creative control.
Additionally, organizational factors can cause stress in employees. For example, poor interpersonal relations among coworkers can be a big factor in workplace stress. Also, unfair management practices can cause frustration among staff.
Common Healthcare Stressors
There are some stressors that are common in healthcare settings. First, inadequate staffing levels can put immense pressure on physicians. Also, physicians typically work long hours, which can be draining. Sometimes, dealing with emotional cases can leave a negative impact on a healthcare worker. Workers might experience role ambiguity and uncertainty. Also, healthcare workers are at high risk for exposure to infectious materials. Therefore, there may be additional stresses regarding one’s physical health in the workplace. Healthcare worker stress can have extreme impacts on patient care. Please take this course to learn more about the impact of work stress on patient care.
Health Effects of Work Stress
There are several adverse health effects of extreme work stress. Here are some of the common reactions to stress:
Psychological symptoms can occur as a result of stress. For example, workers may be more irritable at work. They also might feel more dissatisfaction with their job tasks. Additionally, physicians might develop depression over time.
There are also behavioral problems that can occur. Many doctors report increased sleep problems as a result of stress.
Physical symptoms are also common among stressed healthcare workers. Headaches and stomach issues are frequently reported. More importantly, blood pressure can change drastically due to stress. When occupational stress compounds in an extreme way, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Learn more about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by taking this training.
Controlling Work Stress
There should be workplace actions in place to improve working conditions and reduce work stress. However, it is important to recognize that it is unlikely to completely eliminate stress for all workers.
Therefore, a combination of organizational change and stress management has been identified as the most successful approach for reducing work stress. A common example of an organizational change intervention is redesigning jobs to consider worker input. This course describes several other interventions for organizational change.
Stress Management Strategies
There are occupational stress management strategies that focus on both the individual worker and organizational change. Worker-focused interventions often include individual techniques to manage stress. Healthcare personnel should be trained in stress-coping strategies to manage difficult situations. One such technique is progressive or active muscle relaxation. These can help doctors deal with the physical and emotional symptoms of stress.
Innovative coping is another intervention that has been shown to reduce stress in healthcare workers. Innovative coping helps workers to deal more effectively with their work stress. Worker-focused interventions have become extremely common as a method of stress reduction in the workplace. These interventions do help workers deal with stress, but they do not actually fix the sources of work stress.
Successful Organizational Interventions
There are several common factors that successful stress interventions have in common. First, workers must be involved at all stages of the intervention. Physicians must also have the ability to develop and implement interventions within the facility. Also, management must commit significantly to implementing the stress management strategy as well.
The organizational culture must support stress management. Also, the stress intervention should be evaluated periodically for effectiveness. For more information on the components of a successful stress management intervention, please refer to this training.
Physician Burnout
Healthcare workers are subject to busy work days, demanding job paces, and extreme time pressures. This can cause burnout to occur, which is a long-term stress reaction associated with emotional exhaustion. There are several causes of physician burnout.
Unrealistic time pressure is the main cause of burnout among healthcare providers. Additionally, chaotic working environments can cause physician burnout.
There are several ways to mitigate burnout. This course describes several promising interventions for burnout in clinicians.
Burnout Interventions
Providers should meet at least monthly with upper-level staff to discuss work-life balance and other relevant issues. Additionally, physicians should receive regular screening for work stress conditions, such as diabetes or depression. Medical assistants can also take on a larger role to ease the burden of doctors. For example, medical assistants can enter patient data electronically and track patient forms. For more interventions, please take this training.
Compassion Fatigue
There are two elements of compassion fatigue. These are burnout and secondary traumatic stress. This course provides more detailed information on each of these elements, and how they relate to compassion fatigue and work stress.
