Prevalence of Work Related Stress among Health Practitioners at Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital

Abstract

The study investigated the actual existence of work related stress among health practitioners at Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital in Mashonaland West Province. The 37 health workers, comprising of 22 female and 15 male subjects from 18 different departments, with experience on the job ranging from 0-5 years up to 16 years and more were conveniently selected as a sample. A descriptive survey was used for the collection of data. Structured questionnaires with closed and open ended questions were used to collect data. A pilot study was carried out to ensure validity and reliability of the research instrument. The study findings revealed that work related stress impacted on the social relations, health and psychosocial relationships of the health workers as these practitioners would not fully participate in social activities due to the work schedules they have. There was no significant variation that work related stress was a contributing factor to the health workers’ health status, maybe it was due to differences in instruments used in this study and the other related studies done on the same subject. Work overload was the most mentioned variable that health workers indicated as contributing to work related stress and it was attributed to lack of resources in the whole Zimbabwean public health system. Psychosocial relations of the health workers were affected by the work overload and this in turn contributed to work related stress among the health practitioners. Work under-load was also indicated to contribute to work related stress when health workers would find themselves unable to perform duties as their skills require due to lack of equipment and other materials like medicines. This would occur especially when they watch a patient suffer where there are no materials and equipment or they turn away a patient due to lack of resources. When it came to the issue of salaries, the findings showed that this variable was the most topical issue among health workers who all indicated that the remuneration they got did not match the workload assigned to them as well as their professional qualifications.

Key words: stress, burnout, health practitioners, remuneration