Pressures and stress in a West Australian hospital

Abstract

Using the Occupational Stress Indicator, the results from this study provided a comparative overview of Australian and UK hospital workers’ perceived responses to organizational sources of pressure, use of coping strategies plus outcomes of job satisfaction, mental and physical ill health. The broad picture that emerged was that the Australian hospital workers appeared to have a more favourable working environment as their organization presented fewer sources of pressure. Despite lower levels of contributory pressure, it was apparent that Australian hospital workers perceived similar long‐term outcomes to organizational sources of pressure as the UK hospital worker sample. The Australian hospital workers reported significantly higher perceived physical ill health, and second, similar levels of mental ill health and job satisfaction when compared to the UK hospital workers. In addition, the Australian hospital workers reported increased use of coping strategies. The discussion takes into consideration the context and time frame of the two operating environments.