Causes of Psychological and Emotional Stress
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Causes of Psychological and Emotional Stress
Running head: OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS 1
OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS 6
Occupational Hazards of Health Professionals
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Introduction
According to the National Institute for Occupation Safety and Health, occupation hazard is the critical physical and emotional response that happens when the requirements of the job are not in line with available resources and capabilities. Occupational hazards have been a concern for health workers in hospitals. A recent study indicates that occupational hazards in hospitals compel health workers to abuse drugs and increases the risk of suicide as well as increased rates of anxiety and depression. In addition to these psychological effects, health practitioners are absent from the facilities, reduce job satisfaction, and increase the chances of treatment and diagnosis errors. The paper will explain occupational hazards such as exposure to physical factors, exposure to infectious diseases, exposure to work-related violence, and hazardous chemicals in health care facilities.
Physical Risk Factors
The main occupational hazards that affect health workers and cause psychological and emotional stress are exposure to physical factors such as radiation, lighting, poor ventilation, and electricity assemble. Pollution is the primary physical, occupational hazard that affects different health workers in a different department. Hospital department such as radiology, radiotherapy, and nuclear medicine department exposes health workers to risks such as leukemia, genetic abnormalities, infertility, and burns. Long term exposure to these nonionizing radiations is fatal, especially in high concentration. Other studies show that long term exposure to the equipment with strong electromagnetic in hospital deteriorate the balance of the body and increase the risk of contracting chronic diseases. Similarly, exposure to these types of equipment for at least 8 hours a day causes hearing problems, facial flushing, and eye problems. The loudness of these machines causes discomfort of both patient and health workers, harms the nervous system, and hearing problems. Poor ventilation and lighting are other physical factors that cause psychological and emotional to the health workers. Poor ventilation in hospital increases the risk of nosocomial infections to both patients and health professionals, whereas poor lighting causes discomfort to the health workers.
Chemical risk factors
Many hazardous chemicals are used in the treatment and diagnosis of diseases. Most of the health facilities lack the resources required in handling these dangerous chemicals. There is no proper preventive measure put in place; hence, health workers are exposed to hazardous chemicals. Most of these chemicals contain cytotoxic, acids, and heavy metals such as mercury. The dangerous chemical increases the risk series of disease from an allergy to cancer. Prolonged exposure to these chemicals and inhalation of powder chemicals affect the reproduction system of the health professionals and cause complications during birth.
Exposure to Infectious Diseases
Medical professionals are exposed to infectious diseases as they undertake their work. They are exposed to the blood and other body fluids of different patients in the hospital. Many microorganisms can be transmitted through body fluids, ranging from the hepatitis virus to the human immunodeficiency virus. The exposure to infectious diseases occurs during penetration of needles of patients, injury with sharp surgical instruments, or a mucosal splash of infected body fluid from the patient. Statistically, about two-third of health workers have been to the blood or body fluids of patients at least once in their lifetime. Moreover, it is confirmed that about 57 percent of health workers who are HIV positive, contracted the disease due to exposure to HIV positive patients. The chances of medical professions to get hepatitis B is ten times more than the general public (Ghosh, 2013).
Job Satisfaction and Work-related Violence
Job satisfaction is another factor that has the potential to bring occupational hazard that causes stress to the health professional. Job satisfaction is a situation where the expectation of the employee is from the facility is in harmony with the profession, and the opportunity given to them. Job satisfaction affects the burnout of the employee, which affects their service delivery. Extreme exhaustion may compel the health worker to resign, self-esteem issues, and concentration on the job. Work-related violence can cause burnout in health facilities. The violence in health facilities can be a verbal threat or even sexual abuse. Health professionals are exposed to violence by the facility, patients, and coworkers. Doctors are the immediate victim of occupational violence from the patients and family of patients as they are in direct contact with them. For instance, five doctors were killed in Turkey due to work violence between 2005 and 2015. It is estimated that health professionals are 4-16 times exposed to the risk of violence compared to other professionals in other sectors such as a bank, law enforcement, and transport industries (Ulutasdemir, & Tanir, 2017).
Conclusion
Some of the occupational hazard encountered by a medical professional is also present in my work environment and adverse impact on the employee. Environmental risk, such as poor ventilation in my institution, causes discomfort for both our clients and the employee. It causes eye-straining, reduced performance, and low productivity. The reduced ventilation increases the risk of contracting a contagious disease such as TB. The burnout in our work environment has seen the absenteeism and resignation of the employee. Work-related violence has the potential to occur. The employer abuses the employee verbally, which spark a fight and cause the resignation or firing of an employee. Both the employer and employee may experience psychological problems such as fear and depression.
References
Ghosh, T. (2013). Occupational health and hazards among health care workers. International Journal of Occupational Safety and Health, 3(1), 1-4.
Ulutasdemir, N., & Tanir, F. (2017). Occupational risks of health professionals. Occupational Health, 47-