Patient care is frequently accompanied by emotional and stressful situations. Managing patient–physician relationships, negotiating with employers, and long work hours can create a heavy burden on healthcare workers. In the past few years, healthcare workers have experienced atypically high levels of stress inducing events, particularly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It has become evident that the US healthcare system infrastructure does not adequately address the needs of its workers. As a result of increased work and the absence of support, healthcare workers nationwide are struggling with increased stress and would tremendously benefit, both professionally and personally, from stress management interventions. Between 30% and 70% of healthcare workers feel overly stressed due to their working conditions.
According to a Cochrane review of stress studies, stress management interventions targeting work-related stress can improve how healthcare workers handle stress as long as 1 year later. Stress studies used tactics for both focusing attention on the stress and steering attention away from it. The former included such tactics as cognitive behavioral training, coping, assertiveness training, and communication skills. The latter comprised calming interventions, such as meditation, relaxation, massage, tai chi, yoga, acupuncture, and music therapy.
Findings indicated that when healthcare workers have less stress, the organizations for which they work benefit as well. The review also found that patients benefit from interacting with healthcare workers who have less stress. While any effort to reduce stress is a step toward improvement, combining interventions may provide increased relief.
Another crucial finding of the review is that healthcare organizations should bear the responsibility of arranging stress management interventions for their employees. It is an ethical responsibility that recognizes healthcare workers are not emotionless, insensitive robots, but they are human beings.
The review’s last and most important point is that employers must also improve working conditions within their organizations and address a range of issues, from long hours to understaffing. Such changes in infrastructure would significantly ameliorate burden on their employees and provide better work conditions all around.
