PERCEIVED STRESS LEVEL AND GENDER DIFFERENCES IN STRESS AT WORK

PLACE AMONG PHYSIOTHERAPIST

Introduction

Stress in our daily conversations nowadays has increased. Though we all talk so much about stress
but it often isn’t clear what stress is really about all? We are well aware with some terms which
are used synonymously for stress. These terms are stress, strain, conflict, burnout, depression and
pressure.

Many people consider stress is something that happens to them, an event such as a harm or
encouragement. Whereas others thinks stress is what happens to our bodies, psyche and our
behavior in response to an event. When something happens to us, we as a reflex action start
evaluating the situation mentally. We try to come to a decision, if it is threatening to us, how we
need to deal with situation and what skills and strategies we can use. If we come to conclusion that
the demands of the situation overshadow the skills we have, then we label the circumstances as
stressful and need to react it with the classic stress response. If we trust that our coping skill prevail
over the demands of the situation then we don’t see it as stressful. Some situations in life are stress-
provoking, but they are our thoughts about situations that determine whether they are a problems
to us or not. How we look it and perceive a stress inducing event and how we react to it determines
its impact on our health. If we respond in a negative way our health and happiness suffer. When
we understand ourselves and our reactions to stress-provoking situations, we can learn to handle
stress more effectively.

Stress is a feeling of tension or pressure that people experience when demands placed on them
exceed the resources they have to meet these demands. It is defined as the pattern of specific and
non-specific response an organisms makes to stimulus events that disturbs its equilibrium and
exceeds its ability to cope. According to (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) stress is an internal state
which can be caused by physical demands on the body (disease conditions, exercise, extreme of
temperature) or by environmental and social situations which are evaluated as potentially harmful,
uncontrollable, or exceeding our resources for coping. Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical
tension. It can come from any event or thought that makes feel frustrated, angry, or nervous. It is
body’s reaction to a challenge or demand.

According to APA stress is any uncomfortable “emotional experience accompanied by predictable

The term ‘stress’ was coined by Hans Selye in 1936. According to H.Selye(1936) defined stress
as “non-specific responses that be resulted from a variety of different kinds of stimuli.” However
Selye’s stress theory has only focused on physiological stress, and psychological factors not
considered. But many studies were conducted for clarifying the psychological factors related to
stress, and the results revealed that psychological factors play a significant role in the occurrence
of physiological and psychological stress responses.

Physiological responses to stress make the newborn more alert, promoting the bonding process
and by extension the child’s physical survival. The stress reaction maximizes the expenditure of
energy which helps prepare the body to meet a threatening or challenging situation and the
individual tends to mobilize a great deal of effort in order to deal with the event.
Sympathetic/adrenal and pituatry/adrenal systems become activated in response to stress. The
sympathetic system is a fast-acting system that allows us to respond to the immediate demands of
the situationsby activating and increasing arousal. The pituitary system is slow-actingand prolongs
the arouse state.(Bernard & Krupat,1994).

Stress has generally been viewed as a set of neurological and physiological reactions that serves
an adaptive function (Franken,1994). Traditionally, stress research been oriented toward studies
involving the body’s reaction to stress and the cognitive processes that influence the perception of
stress. However social perspectives of the stress response have noted that different people
experiencing similar life conditions are not necessarily affected in the same manner(Pearlin, 1982).

According to (Fred Luthans, 1998) stress is an adaptive response to an external situationthat result
in physical, psychological and behavioural deviations for organizational participants.
Ivancevich and Matteson defined stress as “an adaptive response, medicated by individual
characteristics and psychological processes, that is a consequence of any external action, situation,
or event that place special physical and psychological demands upon a person.”

Overview Occupational stress in physical therapist which include increased work load and
overtime work environment that may become the cause of stressful working conditions [1].
Occupational stress does not only impact on physical therapy but can also affect your health when
the stress of the workplace exceeds, it impairs the health quality. Some physiotherapist have shown
high level of occupation stress but it is difficult to determine the problem.

Various sources of occupation stress in a physiotherapy are related to administrative issue clinical
issue. Excessive work hours, poor management and heavy workload impact.Job stress can effect
on mental status which also decrease focus of work. The stress related to occupation among the
workers of health care is due to lack of skills as well as reduced social support at work that leads
to distress, psychosocial problems reduced life quality as well as provision of service.

Review of Literature

Impact of stress can be positive and negative depends on individual how tackle that situation. It
has been found to be related to mental and well being quality of life. Various studies have been
done on occupational related stress or workplace related stress.

Keyur parmar (2014) studied gender differences in stress at work place among doctors and nurses.
Authors state that workplace stress is higher among female nursing staff and female doctors as
compared to male nursing staff and male doctors. Females find workplace significantly more
stressful than males. There is a need of giving importance to improve work environment of doctors
and nurses specifically female staff which in turn can help patients and community at large.

G Roland et al., conducted a cross sectional survey in 2014 with the aim to measure the level of
stress among the nursing professionals. Authors state that occupational stress can also affect the
physical and mental state in nursing professionals. Nurses working in the hospitals are experienced
stress irritations. Professional’s performance can be compromised due to job stress.

Olaf von dem knesebeck et al., conducted a survey in 2010 with the aim to analyze psychosocial
stress in the workplace among hospital doctors working in surgical in Germany with the aid of the
demand control model, the effort reward imbalance model, and selected additional indicators
according to this study.

Narayanan sathiya conducted a cross sectional study in 2015 to assess the prevalence of stress and
its sources among doctors and nurses. Thus various studies have been conducted to assess the
stress and stressors among health care professionals.

Melda soysal tomruk conducted a cross sectional study to asses the relationship between physical
activity and perceived stress in physiotherapist. Author had general view pf physiotherapist’s
physical activity and perceived stress level. There was a negative relationship between physical
activity and perceived stress.

Rationale of the Study

This study has taken up for study the level of stress and comparison of stress in male and female
physiotherapist at workplace on the basis of their work environment, load of patients , reward of
their appropriate work performance etc. And so many study has been conducted on workplace
stress for nurses and doctors and other allied health care professional.

Physiotherapist when deal with their patients works physically as well as emotionally sometimes
they get attached to their patients at emotional level who are suffering with paralysis , spinal cord
injuries patients because their rehabilitation is long duration.

Hence this study has been made to assess the level of stress and comparison of stress in male and
female physiotherapist at work place.

Methodology

Research Problem

To study the level of perceived stress and gender differences in stress at workplace among
physiotherapist.

Objectives

Objective of the study to assess the level of stress and compare the gender differences work related
stress level in physiotherapist.
To assess the level of stress and gender difference work related stress in government and private
hospital physiotherapist.

To find out the effect of getting reward or promotion, learning new technique on level of stress
and gender difference stress level among physiotherapist.

Hypothes

There wiil be significant stress level among physiotherapist.

There will be significant relationship level of stress and gender difference work related stress
between government and private hospital physiotherapist.

There will be significant relationship level of stress and gender difference work related stress
between government hospital and clinic based physiotherapist.

There will be significant different level of stress among physiotherapist with regard to marital
status.

Operational definition

Study design

Quantitative study design and purposive sampling tecniques will use. The researcher will contact
them in private clinic and government hospital set up.

Inclusion criteria

Physiotherapist whether working in government or private practice.

Physiotherapist who had at least 2 year work experience in their field

Both male and female physiotherapist

Exclusion criteria

Physiotherapist suffering from any muscuoskeletal disorders or any chronic illness.

Physiotherapist having any recent psychosocial distress in family or close social circle.

Tools

Perceived stress scale 10 item questionnaire is use to assess the level of stress. It is most widely
used psychological instrument for measuring the perception of stress. Perceived stress scale score
are obtained by reversing the scores on the four positive items, e.g., 0=4,1=3,2=2, etc. and then
summing across all 10 item. Item 4,5 7, 8, are the positively stated items. Coefficient alpha
reliablities have been shown to range from 0.67to .86.

Workplace stress scale is used to assess the level of workplace stress. The marlin company and the
American institute of stress had created a quick test for people to measure their job stress levels
and compare themselves. This scale validated and standardized by the marlin company and the
American institute of stress. Each item of the scale rated on 5 point scale it consist total 8 items.

Demographic information sheet will be used to collect various demographic informations about
the sample including age, gender, marital status, years of experience and type of family.

Statistical technique

Descriptive and inferential statistics will be used. The data will be analyzed using SPSS
software correlation mean and standard deviation will be used to analyze.