Causes Of Stress In Teachers And Nurses: A Study

Read the following article and answer the questions below.Article Abstract: Although urban teachers are at-risk of experiencing significant work-related stress, urban teacher stress has been neglected in the research literature to date. Through semi-structured interviews conducted with a sample of K-4 urban teachers (N = 14) from three high-poverty schools in a large, Midwestern city, we examined teachers’ perceptions regarding sources and impact of stress and the resources needed to address identified stressors. Results from consensual qualitative research (CQR; Hill et al. in Couns Psychol, 25:517–572, 1997; Hill et al. in Consensual qualitative research: an update, 2005) suggest that at least one-half of the cases identified lack of resources, excessive workload, school-level disorganization, managing behavior problems, and accountability policies as significant sources of stress. The majority of teachers reported that occupational stress significantly impacted their personal relationships and physical health, and teachers identified human and material resources as most important to reducing work-related stress. Implications for organizationally based interventions and school policies to address urban teacher stress are discussed.

a) Apply relevant stress theories to explain why urban teachers are experiencing significant stress. Relate your answer with real-life examples (locally or overseas) where applicable.

b) Criticize the research methodology used in this study by highlighting it strengths and weaknesses. Suggest improvements or refinements for future research.

The Selye's Theory of Stress

In this theory they access the effect of stress on an individual on a longer duration of exposure.it can simply be split into three categories the initial alarm stage followed by the interim resistance stage and finally the exhaustion stage. The steps of growth in stress form start with the basic adrenaline rush that is quite helpful but with time this grows to depression as the high levels of adrenaline result to a hyper system (Cheek ,et all, 1983) in which the heart is always pumping excitedly and the blood pressure remains high. If the effects persist with longer period of the body being subjected to such it finally becomes overwhelming and the body finally tends to succumb to this through heart failure and other pressure related disorders.

Keeping the seyles theory in mind we take in account unresponsive and rowdy students. Students that fail to meet the basic requirement of class attendance and still expect to get better grades at the end of the desired learning period. Such cases take a toll on the teachers as teachers are given a mandate to teach and prepare students well so as they may get better grades in the final exams, uncooperative students like this tend to be a pain to the teacher making stress levels to the teacher rise slowly but gradually till they get to levels detectable (Lambert, E. G,2004).

Strict deadlines being set by the school board .taking into account a university setup lecturers are expected to upload student results at a given time frame that has been allocated and failure to this is a compromise to the lectures job .such strict deadlines are very tough they take a toil in one and would often result to the lecturer taking his/her work home since during the same time they are expected to offer lectures. This prolonged adrenaline will overstay its welcome resulting to levels of depressions like the one we discussed above the initial alarm stage which is just the window stage of depression.

In this theory focus is made on self-interpretation. If a stressor is seen as a challenge we perceive a way to formulate a strategy to cope with it and a threat that cannot be resolved or that doesn’t have a way to be resolved is perceived as stress.in this theory stress is viewed as a two way perspective in which the individual is in control of the environment and how he/she perceives it predetermines the response (Gray?Stanley et al, 2010).Overwhelming administrative tasks and parents tasks ,Administrations do offer offices to teachers this offices come with them more duties and challenges .a teacher may be forced to work overtime to achieve all duties delegated to the office he/she holds .the teacher in this case can choose to perceive this as a challenge and come up with a solution such as proper time management within the normal working hours and curb this problem, on the other hand the teacher may see this overwhelming duty as a threat and see no way out of it maybe get stuck working up to wee hours just to deliver in the position assigned. This two approaches tackle the same problem but one really works the teacher out and work overload and working wee hours has been a major cause of work stress.

Unresponsive and Rowdy Students

Lack of necessary teaching materials, underfunded schools that make it hard for the teachers to deliver in their capacity also contribute greatly.in such a sticky situation using teacher A and teacher B as illustrations. (Hon, Chan, & Lu, 2013).  A teacher may see the lack of proper teaching materials as a challenge and opt to find a solution, he/she may opt to find alternative options to manage and still deliver by improvising the available materials and this approach won’t take a toll on him/her, Teacher B may choose to whine about the administrations incompetence and lack of proper funding making hi/her work a nightmare. This approach to the teacher won’t be beneficial at all as it results to a pile up of stress levels to the teacher.

Surveys

This partakes the obtaining of information from large numbers of people, for our case study phoning, questionnaires and interviews may be used to source out information from our teachers (Kivimäki & Kawachi, 2015). This type of research is very helpful as it seeks to source out information from large numbers of people as such it comes in handy and its easily documented for future references .its major downfall is that taking in mind administration of questionnaires it is restrictive as users don’t actually get to say what the really think but are guided by simple yes/no .most of them also fail to capture the body language of the correspondent and this is a major cue in this type of information analysis.

Questionnaires

This is very helpful when seeking to obtain information from a large number of correspondent’s .it gives the correspondent the ability to take time think about what is being asked and formulate answers that he/she deems correct in their capacity as the respondent (Marek, Schaufeli, & Maslach, 2017). The major setback to this type of analysis is that correspondents fail to answer many of the questions and provide half information, a large number of people also find it hard to answer questions they see as not socially correct and in our study the teachers may fail to tell certain things that they think will negate the image of the school (Yu, Wang, Zhai, Dai, & Yang, 2015).

Interviews

This is entails close interaction between the respondent and the administrator. Its pro is that it gets to capture the body language which is very important as a respondent gets to study more other than the word of mouth, it’s also easily documented since most interviews are done on camera (Mustafa, & Sharif, 2011). The major drawback for this type is that it is time consuming since the staging of an interview isn’t an instantaneous act and that its only viable when low numbers are being accessed it does not offer the wide range of information to sufficiently state for a given niche (Shultz, Wang, Crimmins, & Fisher, 2010). One teacher cannot be used as the standard to speak for all the teachers and this is what interviews lack in diversity delivery.

Strict Deadlines

This involves the researcher to put his/her self into the shoes of the correspondent. This has a major boost as it makes them get to feel the actual stage in the ground as they get exposed to all environment conditions that their correspondent are exposed to (Szabo, Tache,& Somogyi, 2012). The con in this type of analysis is false impression as majorly the correspondents tend to set up a false image and won’t act normally as they are under scrutiny, this may result with false data that won’t help in analysis of the situation they are exposed to thus misleading the survey.

Case studies

They entail the detailed study of a individual case, this is advantageous as it channels all the energy onto the project of analysis and date obtained from such can be dependable on its very accurate in every sense (Steinhardt, Smith Jaggars, Faulk,  & Gloria, 2011). Its major setback is that it focusses on a narrow source of data and although it offers qualitative information it cannot be depended on for quantitative data reviews as it may give misleading information.

Part 2

As a nurse my possible source of burnout could be the common cases in the work stress causes. The emergency unit is very demanding and at times I am forced to work long times past the normal working hours just because a case that demands all hands on deck trying to help out a new emergency case that has arrived. Pressure at work could be another cause the main task of being a nurse means precision at all times and no clumsy work as any error could be fatal to the patient and would result to a major crisis to the hospital and a compromise of my career.

Emotional attachments towards certain patient’s health result to a drag.as we take information and get stressed as an operation to rescue the patient proves unsuccessful, letting this heavy heart to carry on will definitely be a great contribution to the burn out  (Szabo, Tache, & Somogyi, 2012). Lack of control on how I should carry out my work is a major factor to the burn out, trying to fit in the standards that have been setup by the institution trying to work in a way that isn’t very helpful to my style of work is a thing that will make my work drag. Trying to meet the standards and work style that has been setup.

Self-Interpretation and Perception of Stress

The best ways to cope with the work stress would be developing a healthy response to the stress created. This entails that I develop ways that aren’t the traditional taking alcohol to wipe it all off but rather adopt methods like yoga ,physical classes or even pick up a hobby. This would provide a relatively better way to suppress the normal stress that piles up during working hours  (Szabo, Tache, & Somogyi, 2012).

Taking time to recharge, this entails basically taking time to switch off all about the work activities and getting that you alone time .this is often advisable when you get that space you truly desire and can express yourself fell free and this will entail cutting off all communications work related just to get that recess .this helps a lot to replenish all the energy lost during work and recharge in preparation of a new day.

Conclusion

As stated above research would be beneficial if they really valued the quality rather than quantity of data obtained. The methods should really encourage more and more user to analyst interaction with a suitable environment that would serve as a boost to the quality of response received (Szabo, Tache, & Somogyi, 2012). For the questionnaires being administered there should a mix between closed end questions and open end questions as this allows to get the real response rather than a simple yes or no .As stated above stress on a person is mostly as a result of pile up in the normal work pressure and through early detection it can be managed and curbed before it get out of hand (Tsai, & Liu, 2012).  The various methods of analysis come in handy in helping our case study but are not proof to error as some are biased and thus can effectively conclude that the methods have a great impact on the outcome.

References

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Marek, T., Schaufeli, W. B., & Maslach, C. (2017). Professional burnout: Recent developments in theory and research. Routledge.

Mustafa, Y. E. A., & Sharif, S. M. (2011). An approach to adaptive e-learning hypermedia system based on learning styles (AEHS-LS): Implementation and evaluation. International Journal of Library and Information Science, 3(1), 15-28.

Shultz, K. S., Wang, M., Crimmins, E. M., & Fisher, G. G. (2010). Age differences in the demand—control model of work stress: An examination of data from 15 European countries. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 29(1), 21-47.

Steinhardt, M. A., Smith Jaggars, S. E., Faulk, K. E., & Gloria, C. T. (2011). Chronic work stress and depressive symptoms: Assessing the mediating role of teacher burnout. Stress and Health, 27(5), 420-429.

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Yu, X., Wang, P., Zhai, X., Dai, H., & Yang, Q. (2015). The effect of work stress on job burnout among teachers: The mediating role of self-efficacy. Social Indicators Research, 122(3), 701-708.