To What Extent Does Shift Work Contribute to the Stress of Working as a Paramedic in Adelaide - Essay Example

?To what extent dose shift work contribute to the stress of working as a paramedic in Adelaide? Each kind of work is associated with its ownkind of health and safety risks. These health and safety risks come in different types and forms, but as far as the health risk of stress is concerned, it is known to recorded among almost all levels of jobs. In the duties of a paramedic, stress has been found to be very common and in some cases, in higher in severity. The current research paper was therefore conducted with the research question, “to what extent does shift work contribute to the stress of working as a paramedic in Adelaide?” From the research question, three major themes were developed for data collection. The themes were the role of shift system on stress, how stress affects the work of a paramedic, and how Adelaide could have special instances and cases of higher levels of stress among its paramedic workers. Due to the multi-variance nature of the themes, a mixed research method was used in the data collection exercise. This means that the researcher made use of both secondary and primary data collection processes. A comprehensive literature review was thus conducted, followed by a case study of some health workers. Results showed that the absence of social support of shift work schedule among paramedics in Adelaide and lack of social support systems by employers was the major cause of stress among paramedics. It was therefore concluded that using the provisions of the social support theory to create a shift working system that makes it possible for paramedics in Adelaide to access social intervention policies would be a break through means of dealing with the situation. The Literature Review This section of the research paper, which is the literature review, is an important component of the study, which takes care of an intensive secondary data collection process for the research. Through this, the findings of five major articles have been summarised into three common themes that follow the purpose of the study. The role of shift system on stress There have been a number of studies, trying to investigate the role of shift system on stress. Burge et al (2009) outlines three major theories that associates shift system on stress. These theories are given as physiological impact, non-paramedic theory, and psychological impact. Sophianopoulos et al (2010) on the other hand focus on direct and practical tasks that relate shift system to stress. Some of these tasks and practices are disrupted sleep, absenteeism, poor health, less job satisfaction and reduced performance. On their part, Burge et al (2009) are emphatic that stress is more of a psychological situation as against a physical one and so the psychological impacts far outweigh the physiological and non-paramedic theories. They therefore state that employers must put in more structures and programs that give psychological relief to paramedics on shift system (Sundborg et al, 2012 and Munten et al, 2010). Sophianopoulos et al (2010) however disagrees on the grounds of which theory imposes the worse threat to stress as they emphasise on physiological impacts such as absence of sleep and distorted levels of rest. In their opinion, these physiological impacts could bring psychological consequences. Both researchers however agree to the fact that all three aspects of role of shift on stress are worth addressing to avoid future complications. How stress affects the work of a paramedic Hegg-Doloye et al (2012) emphasised on the fact that stress comes with numerous negative impacts on paramedics and the work that they deliver to their patients. The emphasis of the researchers was however on the direct and physical impact that the paramedic suffers as a result of the stress (Bradford and Florin, 2003). To this end, some of the effects that were found in the results of the researchers were post-traumatic disorders, sleeping disorders, cardiovascular diseases, acute and chronic stress, and obesity (Chen, 2003). The implication that is established from these findings is that when stress remains unaddressed among paramedics, the impacts come in a direct form and this form affects the paramedic as a person. Adding up to the research by Hegg-Doloye (2012), Sophianopoulos et al (2011) also elucidate that depression, excessive sleeping and excessive fatigue are the effects that stress brings unto the paramedic. The latter findings on excessive sleeping may however be said to be in contrast with the sleeping disorder stated by Sophianopoulos et al (2011). This is because in the opinion of Sophianopoulos et al (2011), brings about lack of sleep and inability to sleep as against excessive sleep, outlined by Hegg-Doloye (2012). Causes of stress among Adelaide shift paramedic workers Having noted the nature of stress among shift workers and the impact that this brings, further research has been conducted to identify why these stress conditions come about all together. In the wake of this, Courtney et al (2010) blames the cause of stress among shift paramedic workers, and for that matter those in Adelaide on inconsistency in the normal functioning of their physiological and psychological systems. It is stated for instance that due to the need for some of these paramedics to shift their times of reporting to work, they are normally forced to also tilt and readjust their sleeping times habit (Chwelos, Benbasat and Dexter, 2001). Once such changes in sleep go on for a while, it results in overall poor sleep quality, leading up to stress. On their part, Burge et al (2009) name the pressure of shift work as the most outstanding cause of stress identified in the course of their research. This means that in contrast with Courtney et al (2010), Burge et al (2009) believe that in the shift system, there are groups of paramedic workers who suffer more stressful working experiences than others and these are those whose shifts push them into working during the day when the patient to paramedic ratio is always higher (Clark, 1995). The Method Population and Sample The population of the study is expected to be made up of paramedic workers in Adelaide. It is estimated that there will be a total of one hundred workers within the population. However, the researcher is going to use only a hand full of the number, and this set is going to be referred to as the sample size. The need for having a sample size is to ensure that there are manageable numbers of respondents that the researcher can easily contact in the course of primary data collection (Camargo, 2009 and Davenport, 1998). Sampling Technique The sampling technique refers to the procedure to be used by the researcher in coming about the proposed number of respondents in the sample size. Out the one hundred people in the population, a random sampling technique is going to be used to select twenty workers, who shall be part of the primary data collection exercise. The random sampling shall be used in such a way that the researcher is going to identify all ten health institutions in Adelaide. After the identification, the names of all workers in each institution are going to be written down into a piece of bowl. Randomly, two names are going to be selected for each institution. The ten names to come up from each health institution with paramedics shall be used as members in the sample. Data Collection Design The data collection design is going to follow the survey research design. It has been explained that a survey involves the collection of data from a fewer proportion of people in a large data setting such that the responses or data received represents the general idea of the whole data setting (Egan and Liu, 1994 and Fineout-Overholt et al, 2010). In relation to the proposed study, the researcher shall use the stress attitude and behaviour among the twenty respondents to represent the idea of the extent of how shift system affects paramedic workers in Adelaide as a whole. Instrumentation Instrumentation as used in this context simply refers to the medium or tool that will be used in collecting data from the twenty respondents who will be selected for the study (Erasala, David and Rajkumar, M. 2002). The use of interview is highly recommended for the nature of study available. The major reason behind the use of interview is that it provides an avenue for qualitative data to be collected through the use of open ended questions on various themes that has to do with stress and stress management among shift paramedic workers in Adelaide (Ferrara, 1998). Data Analysis Plan Qualitative data analysis procedure is going to be adapted by the researcher in the course of data analysis. Imperatively, there is not going to be the use of any numeric indices and mathematical expression when undertaking data analysis. To this end, the data analysis is going to have two major components made up of presentation of results and discussion of results. The data analysis shall be based directly on the responses to be collated from the respondents through the answers provided on the questionnaire (Fichman, 2002). Ethical Consideration In the conduct of academic and professional research works of this nature require so much ethical considerations and adherence (Grimson, 2001). In this instance therefore, all the necessary permission and clearance was sought from the various health institutions that were included in the study from Adelaide. There was a consent form that clearly spelt out the aim of the study, role of participants, as well as the significance of the study. Through the consent form also, participants were assured of total anonymity and confidentiality in the treatment of responses that they provided to the study. The Results This section of the paper presents the results that were collected from the respondents as part of the data collection exercise. Through the use of an interview guide, various questions that concern the work of paramedics and its relation with stress levels were asked. These questions were generally grouped under three themes and the results collected for each theme has been presented as follows. The role of shift system on stress Respondents were asked to express their opinions as to whether or not the shift system had any influence on the levels of stress that are experienced at work. There was a unanimous response among all respondents that shift system indeed accounted for high levels of stress in the work that they do. When asked to explain further, greater percentage of respondents pointed to poor sleeping habit and lack of continuity in the social structure of paramedics as the major cause of stress in the shift system. All the respondents said that when they had to change from morning shift to night shift for instance, it took them so long to adjust to a new sleeping pattern. In majority of the respondents, such inconsistencies in sleep created a high level of psychological imbalance and lack of concentration, leading to stress. In the opinion of other respondents, the fact that there was an absence of continued social balance due to the shift system also caused them to lose concentration and become stressed in the long run. How stress affects the work of a paramedic All respondents were asked a direct question of whether or not stress affected their work as paramedics. In response to this, all respondents said “yes, stress affects our work as paramedics”. The researcher therefore proceeded to ask respondents the specific question of how stress affected their work. It was at this stage that there were two major divisions of answers namely physical effects and mental effects. Larger percentage of respondents however chose mental effects over physical effects. Regarding those who selected physical effects, they pointed out that stress brought about increase in weight, poor growth rate due to lack of sleep or over sleeping, poor eating habit, and distorted mannerism. For those who selected mental effects, they were of the opinion that becoming stressed made them highly irritable and anxious. In some cases, these effects were carried unto the work that they did as paramedics. There were others who also said this brought about lack of mental alertness. Effectiveness of Social Support Intervention in dealing with stress among shift paramedic workers in Adelaide Based on the use of the social support theory throughout the research, the respondents were asked to express their opinions on how effective they believed social support interventions could help in dealing with their stress and the effects of their stress. When asked about social support interventions, greater number of respondents said they knew about them. They named some of a healthy hobby schedule, time out with family, attendance of games, and holiday benefits from employers. Among those who had first had idea about these social support interventions, all of them said they believed these interventions were effective in managing stress. But not all of them believed that using social support interventions could be the only procedure to eradicate stress. Of those to whom social support interventions were introduced to for the first time, some of them agreed to give personal try to their application whiles some few did not believe they could be effective. The Discussion Section So far, the key findings of the research can be summarised as that, there is indeed an association between shift system and stress among paramedic workers in Adelaide. This is so because all respondents who are also workers in shift systems as paramedics admitted to the fact that the system that is run generates high levels of stress for them. By this, the research question, which was posed as “To what extent dose shift work contribute to the stress of working as a paramedic in Adelaide?” could be answered as that shift work brings about stress among paramedics in Adelaide. In context of existing social support theory, the findings could be interpreted as that an imbalance and inconsistency in the regulated social structure of a person could be a very high cause of stress. The reason why shift work and stress are synonymous in terms of social support theory is that the absence of a regulated social lifestyle creates both physical and mental effects as there become distortions in the regulated way of functionality among affected people (Wilkins et al 2008). Should there be fixed way in which these workers could have their social lifestyle restored whiles undertaking the shift work, the effects would be almost absent. Interestingly, greater parts of the results that were collected from respondents correspond directly to what was reviewed in literature. For example as far as the relationship between shift work and stress is concerned, Sophianopoulos et al (2010) had pointed to sleep disorders as the major factor that brings about stress among paramedics who are on shift system. During the interview also, all respondents who reported having stress also said they had various forms of sleep disorders. The same can be said of the effect of stress on paramedics as respondents indicated that their worse affected areas of life were physical and mental effects. Meanwhile, Hegg-Doloye (2012) had mentioned in literature that physical effects and mental effects are the two commonest forms of stress effects that paramedics working on shift system suffer. On the contrary to literature however, respondents did not share the opinion that their levels of stress caused them to perform poorly at work as had been elucidated by Courtney et al (2010) in literature. The major strength of the study is has succeeded in establishing a theoretical basis for dealing with stress among paramedic workers who are working on a shift system. What this means is that the interventions that have been put forth can be taken up by academicians and health researchers on ways of integrating social support intervention into the daily roles of paramedics on shift systems. The same line of argument can be established for employers of paramedics. As far as weaknesses are concerned, it can be said that the research could be conducted using a larger sample size so as to authenticate the internal reliability of results. Further researchers are therefore admonished to use up to 40% of their population as a sample size. In conclusion, it can be said that until a time that paramedics who are running shift systems are given pragmatic social support interventions, the probability that these people can deliver their roles to the best of their abilities will be affected (Calfee and Scheraga, 2004).). It is therefore recommended that the use of social support interventions should be made an integrated part of the organisational culture of all health facilities that run shift systems for their paramedics. References Bradford, M. and Florin, J. 2003. 'Examining the Role of Innovation Diffusion Factors on the Implementation Success of Enterprise Resource Planning systems', International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 43.: pp. 205-225. Calfee, J., & Scheraga, C. (2004). The influence of advertising on anti-natal care: A literature review and an econometric analysis of four European nations. International Journal of Advertising, 13, 287-310. Camargo, C.A. (2009). 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