Stress In Healthcare Professionals Research Articles

Association of psychological and physiological measures of stress in health‐care professionals during an 8‐week mindfulness meditation program: mindfulness in practice

AbstractWork stress, burnout, and diminished empathy are prevalent issues for health‐care professionals. Mindfulness meditation (MM) is one commonly used strategy to manage stress. Measuring salivary cortisol allows for the assessment of serum cortisol level, a known stress level indicator. This study evaluated the association of subject‐reported stress symptoms and salivary cortisol in health‐care professionals, in an 8‐week MM program, with data collected prospectively at baseline and 8 weeks after program completion. Questionnaires [Profile of Mood States—Short Form (POMS‐SF), Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), and Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)] measured mood, burnout and empathy.A paired t‐test between groups for pre/post‐salivary cortisol yielded no significant change. The POMS‐SF was most sensitive to change (mean increase 12.4; p = 0.020). Emotional exhaustion, measured in the MBI, was also affected by MM (mean decrease 4.54; p = 0.001). Changes in empathy may not have been captured due to either absence of effect of MM on empathy, subject number or scale sensitivity. Baseline and 8‐week correlations between salivary cortisol and survey results, and correlations between changes in these measures, were weak and not statistically significant. Nevertheless, psychometric results present a strong case for additional clinical trials of MM to reduce stress for health‐care professionals. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Comparison of Psychological and Physiological Measures of Stress in Health Care Professionals during an Eight-Week Mindfulness Meditation Program

Comparison of Psychological and Physiological Measures of Stress in Health Care Professionals during an Eight-Week Mindfulness Meditation Program

Job stress and coping strategies in health care professionals working with cancer patients

The aim of this study was to determine the factors influencing stress in health care professionals working with cancer patients and the strategies used to cope with stress. The data was collected by self-report questionnaires, the Job Stress Inventory and Ways of Coping Inventory. Overall 109 health care professionals (physicians n=52, nurses n=57) employed in five Oncology Hospitals in Ankara, Turkey, between January 2001 and July 2001 were involved in the study. It was identified that the mean job stress score of health care professionals was 30.76 (physicians=30.53, nurses=31.00) (range=0–50). This stress level indicated that there were signs of physical and psychological stress. It was determined that variables influencing stress scores were marital status, age, professional career, unfairness in promotion opportunities, imbalance between jobs and responsibilities, conflict with colleagues, lack of appreciation of efforts by superiors, responsibilities of role, long and tiring work hours, inadequacy of equipment, and problems experienced with patients and their relatives. It was also determined that health care professionals utilize similar strategies in order to cope with stress. The most common strategy used by physicians and nurses was a self-confident approach ( x ̄ =1.89 and 1.82 respectively), and the strategy least used was a submissive approach (respectively, x ̄ =1.03 and 0.85). Programmes directed towards reducing job stress and enhancing motivation and job satisfaction were recently considered by health institutions. It is thought that the findings of the study could be taken into account in preparing programmes (coping with stress, training) for health care professionals working with cancer patients.

The experience of stress for cancer nurses: a heideggerian phenomenological approach

Caring for people has frequently been described as stressful. Managing the disease (Stewart et al 1982) and the work environment (Papadatou et al 1994), meeting the emotional demands of patients and families (Delvaux et al 1988), feeling helpless and empathizing with the patient's suffering (Gray-Toft & Anderson 1980, Ullrich & FitzGerald 1990) have all been suggested to contribute to the stress of health-care professionals in the field of cancer care. Understanding the experiences of cancer nurses is intrinsic to the development of cancer care and cancer service provision. This is demonstrated by the relationship found between cancer carer stress and poor communication, patient and family distress, and poor quality of care (Delvaux et al 1988). Although there is now a substantial body of research exploring stress and burnout in cancer care, we only have a limited understanding of how stress fee l s and how it is experienced. Stress and burnout remain conceptually confused and ill defined. This has implications for the usefulness of the majority of studies which use survey designs to delineate the specific variables of stress. Studies have also concentrated on an individual level of analysis leaving the relationship between the individual's subjective experience and the broader social context untheorized (Handy 1988).