A Study on work stress Among Healthcare employees

This study examines the incidence, causes, and consequences of work related stress in the health care staff and scans the efficiency of current stress reduce efforts. Undertaken across five teaching hospitals, the study was cross sectional, multi centric study that involved 350 participants, which was a mix of nurses, medical doctors, allied health practitioners, and administrative personnel. Questionnaires used to collect the data included the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Professional Quality of Life Scale and interviews with open-ended questions to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data on the participant work-related stress. The study indicates that stress is highly prevalent amongst healthcare employees, the main stressors being poor staff-patient ratios, long working hours, high levels of emotional demands, and problems of role blur. Most importantly, the staff from the emergency departments reported considerably higher stress levels compared to other departments, this may be an implication that the intensity and characteristic of work in emergency settings may be special. The correlation evidence highlighted in the study clearly indicated increased stress levels among the medical workforce as a determinant of a direct relationship between stress and levels of medical errors, patient safety and care delivery.