Psychosocial Risks in Workers of a Healthcare Unit in the Alentejo Region of Portugal
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25752/psi.14598Keywords:
Psychosocial Risks, Psychosocial Hazards, Healthcare Unit Workers, Healthcare Professionals, COPSOQAbstract
Background: Poor institutions management and work organization can cause psychological distress among workers by imposing on them unsustainable pressures and demands. The health sector is particularly exposed to this type of risk, with stress and violence being some of the most important psychosocial risk factors to which these professionals are exposed. This exposure can lead to significant consequences on the individual, in the institution and at a social level and affect directly the physical and mental health of the professionals, impairing their performance and the quality of care provided.
Aims: We aimed to determine the presence and characteristics of psychosocial stressors and associated risks, correlating it with sociodemographic variables of workers in a Local Health unit of the Alentejo region, in Portugal.
Methods: In this work, the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) was used to evaluate the psychosocial risks of healthcare professionals from a medium-sized healthcare unit in the Alentejo region of Portugal, covering primary and hospital health care. COPSOQ is based on a demand and control model which attempts to explain stress as a consequence of high labor demands and low social support.
Results and Conclusions: In this study we found a health risk for medical workers in the dimension “job insecurity”, which reflects fear of losing their job. We also found an intermediate situation for nurses, technical assistants and other workers with higher education. Operational assistants and management workers were the professional categories where the health risk was considered favorable. We also found statistically significant correlations of higher risk for workers in hospital health care in the dimensions work pace (t(124)=2,71), emotional demands (t(124=2,18) and vertical trust (t(116)=2,36); higher risk for male workers in the dimensions cognitive demands (t(136)=2.71), work influence (t(136)=2,32), predictability (t(132)=2,08), transparency of their work role (t(132)=2,74), conflicts at work (t(132)=2,73), meaning of work (t(134)=3.31), work engagement (t(134)=2,44) and offensive behaviors (t(132)=2,16); and a higher risk for female workers in the burnout dimension (t(132)=2,16). These results show that systematic screening for the presence of psychosocial stressors should be implemented on health care units and hospitals. In this way the creation of policies to decrease health professionals risk exposure could be promoted.
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