Mental Health Promotion Amongst Healthcare Professionals - Sample

Question: Discuss about the Mental Health Promotion Amongst Healthcare Professionals. Answer: Introduction Each work has a specified time allotted to it. Even though there are miracles happening throughout the courses of medical sciences but a specified time should be given to the healthcare professionals to deal with their stress too. Stress comes as the tension related to the workplace increases. Nowadays the competitions for better promotions and salaries have increased the stress factor in the workplaces. Healthcare professionals are inadvertently more prone to stress, which results in high professional burn outs because they are responsible for the lives of thousands of human beings who depend on them directly or indirectly because when their response is quick and appropriate it has a positive impact on them. Slower or no response results in adverse conditions may lead to adverse situations with serious impact on the patients (Wells Kaptchuk, 2012). This essay sheds light on the stress that the healthcare professionals especially the nurses face while performing their duties. Nurses of different areas of specialization face different levels of stress due to different work situations. The following paragraphs deal with the nurses who are in different sections of the healthcare services and the mental stress they encounter due to various incidences that occur in course of their work. The discussion also sheds light upon how the problems are faced and recovered by the nurses in courses of two cases. Different kinds of stress that affects the mental health of the nurses at workplace The healthcare profession has different units. Different spheres of healthcare impart different types of stress to the healthcare professionals dealing with patients. The intensive care unit patients are the most critical ones to be admitted in the hospitals. The nurses dealing with these people often have to see that the patients they were looking after are unable to survive. Therefore, death is the most important issue that the nurses have to cope up with in the Intensive Care Units (Peters et.al., 2013). The healthcare professionals present there see the patients suffer. Some of them win others loose. It causes a huge emotional stress on the nurses and the professionals involved in taking care of them. The healthcare professionals who are involved in the Internal medicines and Surgical Departments suffer from intense pressure of the workload. Adequate manning is another important stress source of the nurses in this category (Nardi et.al.; 2013). Sources of the important stresses of the nurses involved in different healthcare services are these. Two important cases that are being highlighted are in harmony with the nurses serving in oncology department and the surgical department. Two cases that gives an insight to the stress that is faced by the nurses and how they overcame it The following two cases provide an insight into the stresses that is faced by the nurses and how they overcame it. The two most vulnerable departments oncology and surgical department are taken. Stress factor in the oncology department The most substantial stress for the nurses is the oncology department. Of all nurses, the novice nurses do not have adequate preparation to care for the patients and their families. The nurses of the oncology department especially thenursing staff continues to suffer from work burnout along with compassion fatigue. The oncology department is one in which the results are not predictable. People can live or die from this situation (Niu et.al., 2012). A person who is recovering well from the post cancer treatment may succumb at any stage. If he is practically a child then the emotional bonding with the nurse becomes more pronounced. A nurse becomes somewhat like a guardian to the patient who is undergoing treatment at the hospital. A person suffering from cancer has many psychological and emotional changes attached to the patient. A nurse has to guide the patient through his tough times. Because of this bonding between the nurse and the patient, the families of the patient also are attached to the nurses. Inadvertently the nurses sought to nurture a soft corner for the patient and the people related to the patient. This results in a high amount of risk of suffering from emotional fatigue and burn out of the nurses due to work stress. Moreover, the working hours of the nurses may stretch from overt ime to 24 hours. This too adds to the fatigue levels of the nurses. The nurse and the patient share a symbiotic relationship resulting in the transfer of stress and emotional distress from the patient to the nurse and again back to the next patient and the nurse. This is known as the stress cycle. Thenursing job is an exhausting job that requires patience and dedication. However, at times it becomes very exhaustive. Nurses should be given a specified time of work rather than working 12 hours or 24 hours. A nurse working 12 hours is at potentially higher risk of suffering a burnout than one working 8 hours (Ray et. al., 2013). Nurses should not over exercise their emotions and are attached to a patient, neither they should be too insensitive or cynical (Granek et. al., (2013). They should maintain a balance between the two. Stress Factor in the surgical department Surgical department is one department where the manning power and staff are less and hence the duty shifts run at a hectic schedule (Hankey, 2017). Majority of the nurses are below the age of 35 and are married with children in most cases (Klein, 2013). The working hours of these nurses too range from 12 to 24 hours and the younger ones are given 3 to 4 shifts resulting in high work dissatisfaction. Moreover, the doctors and the relatives of the patient who has succumbed to his injuries often mete out the nurses posted in the operation theatre or in the surgical zones with ill treatment. The nurses of these department i.e. the internal medicine and surgery find it hard to take out time for them. Their busy and demanding work schedules neither allow them to have a proper meal nor rest. This result in high work dissatisfaction, loss of interest to work, increased levels of depression, loss of appetite and the power of judgement. Balancing work and home also becomes a problem especially for those who are married and have children (Argyle, 2013). Consequently, to this stressed work life the performances drop invariably to very sub standard levels. It is the concern of the hospital to see that the nurses are meted out with high degrees of respect.Nursing is a noble profession but it is very exhausting too (Tyler, 2013). Stress is a major factor to keep the level of work high but overdoses of stress leads to poor functioning of the system. The doctors should be given strict instruction so that they do not behave badly with the nurses. As regards of the patients family, it is their duty to understand that the doctors and nurses are all human. Their profession is to save lives and any mishaps occurring is purely inadvertent and without any motive. Charging of the nurses and doctors and harassing them only increases their stress and they become reluctant to work more. Every hospital should take care of the working hours of the nurses and see that they are provided with time to manage their home and work balance. The employers should also see to the fact that over burdening of work does not take place, which will yield stress and wi ll result in the poor functioning of the employees. The nurses should be given adequate rest (Razee et.al., 2012) Duty of the Hospitals to combat work stress The primary motive of all the hospitals should be not to delineate the nurses and provide them with equal rights as the doctors. The nurses should be assigned specified hours of duty to ensure their and the patients well being. The nurses should be taken care of, as it is them that the patients lean upon mostly while recovering. Moreover, it is also a part of the duty of the nurses to take care of them on their own so as to prevent themselves from entering into emotional bonds with the patient, which will lead to their emotional fatigue (Hochschild, 2012).The promotion of mental health helps in fostering competencies and resources among the individuals so that the psychological strengths help in strengthening the assets of the community (Costa et al., 2014). The strategies for promotion of health are inclusive of the public policy that help in the enhancement of health and creates an environment that is supportive in nature. The efforts of the public health policy have been focused p rimarily on the physical illness, disability of the individuals and the injuries that will help in increasing the longevity of the persons (Bragard, Dupuis Fleet, 2015). The positive psychology is not the mainstream psychology that is negative, as it focuses mainly on mental illness and pathology. It tries to provide a complete and scientific understanding of the experiences of the humans, which includes the positive as well as the negative experiences that help in integrating the knowledge about mental illness and the attitudes towards a positive mental health. The positive emotions such as joy and interest help the individuals to engage with the social and physical environment by exploring the objects, situations and people (Fiabane et al., 2013). The theory of broaden and build helps in channeling the attention of the people through behaviors and social resources that helps in functioning on an optimal basis. The negative emotions in the short-term are adaptive in nature whereas the positive emotions help in the longer run. The emotions that are partial in nature are heritable to some extent, as genes help in determining the set of emotions that run in a human body that is either sadness or happiness (Folkman, 2013). Within the traits that are positive in nature for an individual, the trait of optimism and resiliency exists; it helps in adapting the methods that will help the individual in averting the risks. It helps the nurses to cope up with the challenges that they face in their work by mastering the skills that are required to achieve it (Costa et al., 2014). The promotion of resiliency can be seen between the nurses who are looking for support from the locals and through the various levels that are present in the society. Through the various studies on resiliency, it can be seen that it helps in adapting the stresses in a positive manner and helps in promoting competencies among the nurses. The positive resilience among the nurses helps in predicting the intensity with respect to the social contexts and the circumstances that surrounds it. It also helps in enhancing the health of the public by the nurses, as it is based on the behavioral theories of science that are effective in nature. The resilience factor helps in boosting the emotions that are positive in nature and minimizes the effects that are negative in nature such as depression (Fiabane et al., 2013). Conclusion Thus from the above discussion a conclusion can be drawn that the main causes of the stress, work burnout and emotional fatigue are the lengthy work hours, exhausting job schedules, high levels of low work satisfaction and emotional attachment with the patient. The life of a nurse is also a juggle between the workplace and the home. The employers should keep in mind that the nurses get ample time to manage work and home so as to keep a balance. It is true that without stress it is not possible to bring out the maximum potential of a particular person or a situation. Without stress, the potential of a person is not realized even by the person himself. Stress proves to deliver the best of the abilities in a person. However, there is a proverb that too much of a good thing spoils everything. Stress in higher doses is poor for the mental well-being and will slowly lead to the disintegration of the society. 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