A profile of perceived stress factors among nursing staff working with intellectually disabled in-patients at the Free State Psychiatric Complex, South Africa

Abstract

IntroductionNursing staff working with intellectually disabled in-patients experience unique stress factors that can influence their personal well-being and work performance.ObjectivesTo compile a profile of stress factors experienced by nursing staff working with intellectually disabled in-patients at the Free State Psychiatric Complex (FSPC).MethodsThis descriptive study included 89 nursing staff members from this environment. A questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic information and determine personal and occupational stressors. The data were summarised by frequencies and percentages (categorical variables) and means or percentiles (numerical variables).ResultsMost participants were aged between 46 and 55 (41.2%), female (93.2%) and black (93.2%), and 76.7% had children or dependant minors. The main stressors among participants were pressure providing financially for their children and dependant minors (71.2%), caring for them (39.4%) and fearing them moving away (25.8%). Occupational stressors included high workload (66.3%), lack of decision-making by superiors (58.1%), underpayment (53.5%), endangerment of physical health (52.3%) and safety (50.0%), working hours (51.2%), pressure of expectations from superiors (48.8%), uncertainty of employment (48.8%), work responsibilities (47.7%) and perceiving that skills and training were not appreciated. They experienced stress regarding health issues such as hyper- and hypotension (35.3%). Because of stress 34.5% of participants took leave, 34.5% developed depression and 14.3% had panic attacks.ConclusionMost of the respondents experienced personal and occupational stress that influenced their health, which poses serious challenges for the management of the FSPC. Security should be upgraded, medical and psychological support for the staff and care facilities for their dependants should be provided, and financial problems experienced by these staff members should be addressed. The workload of the nursing staff at FSPC needs urgent attention. This can be done by means of a workforce analysis to determine minimum staffing levels for nursing.

Exploration of the Association between Nurses’ Moral Distress and Secondary Traumatic Stress Syndrome: Implications for Patient Safety in Mental Health Services

“…Apart from morally distressful situations and secondary traumatic stress syndrome, emotional exhaustion has also been identified as a job-related hazard for MHNs. Studies in MHNs have reported association between emotional exhaustion and several health outcomes, including low self-reported somatic health level [ 54 , 55 ], anxiety and depressive symptoms [ 56 , 57 ], or higher risk of health-threatening behaviours, such as tobacco smoking [ 58 ] or consumption of alcohol [ 51 ].…”

“…The main work-related stressors encountered by MHNs, possibly associated with psychosocial and job-related hazards, may be grouped into two categories [ 36 , 51 , 55 , 59 , 60 ]: those stressors related to the therapeutic relationship and the nursing process of care, namely, challenging behaviours by patients and their family members, physical and verbal violent behaviour towards clinicians by patients, patients' suicidal behaviour, nonadherence to therapy, and insufficient time to provide optimal care, and those related to the working context, that is, poor staffing, inadequate referral systems, heavy workload, insufficient resources, type of working setting (community versus hospital settings), and uncertainty of employment.…”

Association of hospital pharmacy–related knowledge and skills with occupational stress of clinical pharmacists in tertiary hospitals of China

“…15 For health care providers in remote and border areas in developed countries, limited basic education and skill training also resulted in their occupational stress. 16,17 However, in developing or undeveloped countries, limitations of professional knowledge and skills to perform routine tasks, [18][19][20] nursing care, operating upto-date medical equipment, 21 and communication 22,23 are the primary stressors among health care providers.…”

Slaba vest in izgorelost medicinskih sester v enotah intenzivne nege in terapije

“…O občutenju stresa na delovnem mestu poroča približno tretjina medicinskih sester. Na delovnem mestu medicinske sestre so najpogostejši stresorji preobilica dela, neudeležba v procesu sprejemanja odločitev, prenizko plačilo in slaba podpora nadrejenih (Conradie et al, 2017;Lee & Kim, 2020). Stalni stres lahko vodi do izgorelosti, ki negativno vpliva tako na medicinsko sestro kot tudi na bolnike.…”