Abstract
Background: Occupational stress has been a major problem for healthcare workers (HCWs) in public institutions. It has been reported that public institutions are exposed to high levels of stress globally and locally and currently. As a result, this is a public health concern because the impact of stress affects physical and psychological health of the public healthcare personnel, career satisfaction, quality of life, interpersonal skills and health service delivery. Since there has not been any study nor literature outlining these risk factors in Soweto public clinics, this study will outline the risk factors identified in public clinic in Soweto.
Objective: This study sought to investigate the occurrence of prevailing risk factors associated with the development of occupational stress and the effects of occupational stressors amongst healthcare workers comparing the medicals and non-medicals in selected public clinics in Soweto, Gauteng Province, South Africa.
Methods: The study was quantitative research study, whereby a descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. A simple random sampling technique was employed to draw a sample of 370 participants from different primary healthcare facilities dividing them into medicals and non-medicals in Soweto, South Africa. A validated Expanded Nursing Stress Scale (ENSS) questionnaire was used to collect data. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and EPINFO 7.2 was used for data management. frequency analysis was used to create frequency distribution tables and bar graphs to indicate the prevalence of occupational stressors amongst the medical and non-medical healthcare workers and their effects on healthcare workers. The odds ratio, confidence intervals was used to determine the association of the risk factors to the development of occupational stress amongst the medical and non-medical healthcare workers developing.
Results: It was established that medical and non-medical healthcare workers in Soweto clinics were differently exposed and affected by the following risk factors which are associated with the development of occupational stress. Not having enough time to respond to patients’ family needs (OR 2.2.3 95% CI (1.02-4.85) and (OR 2 .27, 95% CI 1.21-6.11), performing procedures that patients experienced painful (OR 0.25, 95% CI 0.16- 0.76), feeling inadequately prepared to help with the emotional needs of patients family (OR 0.45, 95% CI 0.24- 0.86), a physician not being present when a patient dies (OR 3.86, 95% CI 1.37- 10.89), making a decision concerning a patient when the physician is unavailable (OR 0.34, 95% CI 1.01- 5.39), being exposed to health and safety hazards. (OR 1.54, 95% CI 0.64- 3.71), the lack of support from immediate supervisor (OR 2.53, 95% CI 1.06- 6.03) and being inadequately trained for what they have to do (OR 2.46, 95% CI 1.22- 4.97). The effects of these stressors indicated that workers take long leave days to avoid work, the stressors give them work anxiety, exposure to these stressors reduces their quality of work and the healthcare workers want to migrate from public sector to private sector.
Conclusions: It was concluded that the development occupational stress more among the medical healthcare workers in Soweto was caused by exposure to risk factors, inadequate time to meet patients’ family’s needs, witnessing patients’ pain, failure to meet the emotional needs of patients’ families, exposure to health and safety hazards, inadequate supervisor support, and inadequate training to perform certain tasks. These factors have caused a major effect on the healthcare workers such as being absent from work, decreasing their work quality and wanting to migrate to private sector.
Keywords: Healthcare workers, Medicals, Non-Medicals, occupational stress, socio-demographic factors, medical, non-medicals, public primary healthcare clinics, Soweto.