Occupational stress and neurological rehabilitation physiotherapists

Broom, Jacqueline P.; Williams, Jan

Abstract

A qualitative study was undertaken to investigate issues of occupational stress in neurological rehabilitation physiotherapists. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with ten physiotherapists of mixed grade working in three hospitals in one Health District. Stress was found to be a major problem for all the physiotherapists interviewed, affecting both personal well-being and professional performance. The effects of rapid and continuing change in the health service, autocratic management styles, and problems of communication and professional autonomy were all identified as stress factors. The physiotherapists felt stressed in striving to live up to their ideals of the professional role in the face of increasing clinical workloads, a mounting volume of paperwork and diminishing human and material resources. The high standards which physiotherapists set themselves especially compounded these problems, resulting in self-recrimination, frustration and disappointment. The taboo and personal guilt associated with stress were much in evidence: physiotherapists saw stress as a personal weakness and sought solutions first at an individual level. More open management styles, improved communications and better teamwork were also seen as ways to reduce stress, and better on-the-job support for junior staff was considered a priority. Work-based counselling services were however rejected. Promoting the profile of physiotherapy was seen as vital to improve professional status and recognition, with physiotherapists viewing the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy as a catalyst to achieving this.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 1996
• Journal: Physiotherapy
• Electronic ISSN: 1230-8323
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 82
• Issue: 11
• Pages: 606-614
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0031-9406%2805%2966329-8
• Keywords: occupational stress, neurological rehabilitation, physiotherapists
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1104149
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0031-9406(05)66329-8