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Stress in health professionals

from Psychology, health and illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2014

By
Chris McManus
Edited by
Susan Ayers ,
Andrew Baum ,
Chris McManus ,
Stanton Newman ,
Kenneth Wallston ,
John Weinman  and
Robert West
Chris McManus
Affiliation:
University College London
Susan Ayers
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Andrew Baum
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Chris McManus
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital Medical School
Stanton Newman
Affiliation:
University College and Middlesex School of Medicine
Kenneth Wallston
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing
John Weinman
Affiliation:
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's
Robert West
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London
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Summary

Stress and burnout are inevitable problems for the highly committed, highly involved individuals who work in healthcare services, as they deal with the physical and emotional problems of seriously ill and sometimes emotionally disturbed patients, while also having to cope with running effective teams, dealing with complex management structures and conflicting demands at all hours of the day and night. Anyone working in such conditions will inevitably become stressed if enough such pressures are placed upon them. Having said that, not everyone in practice does become stressed, and that raises a host of questions about who becomes stressed, why people become stressed, what are the precipitating and protective factors and what are the causal processes underlying the separate but related conditions of stress and burnout. A brief review such as this can inevitably only present a personal view of a large research area. Several recent edited volumes are recommended as good starting places for studying the field further (Dollard et al., 2003; Cooper, 2005).

Defining and measuring stress and burnout

Stress

As p. 1 of Cox (1978) pointed out long ago, ‘the concept of stress is elusive … It is a concept which familiar to both layman and professional alike; it is understood by all when used in a general context but by very few when a more precise account is required …’.

Type
Chapter
Information
Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health and Medicine , pp. 500 - 505
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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