Analysis Of Acute Anxiety In The Health Industry

Manifestation of Acute Anxiety

Discuss about the Analysis of Acute Anxiety Emerging Problem.

In the contemporary work setting managing occupational health has increasingly proven to be a challenging task with the emergence of new work health and safety issues. Among the many emerging issues, increased cases of acute anxiety claims at the workplace stood out as a paramount concern at the 2013 annual Workplace and Industrial Relations National Conference held in Sydney (Cottini & Lucifora, 2013). In Australia, the cost incurred in compensating workers for their work related stress is projected to be $200 million on an annual basis (Keegel et al., 2009). Increasing acute anxiety claims have certainly contributed to the overwhelming compensation expenditure. A significant causal mechanism of work-related acute anxiety is performance related stress due to factors such as work expectations, unrealistic workloads, and inadequate support and resources. This paper will analyze the manifestation of the acute anxiety as a risk in the health industry and review the legislative and standard industry practice for health workers in Australia.

To begin with, this part of the paper will critically examine how acute anxiety claims come about in the health sector and adverse impacts of its occurrence. There increased the incidence of severe anxiety at the workplace results from an indefinite interaction between human and occupational factors that lead to emotional disturbances, neurohormonal and biochemical alterations, and behavioral problems resulting in acute anxiety (Laschinger & Nosko, 2015). The negative interaction of human and occupational aspects presents the issue of psychosocial hazards which are categorized into two groups: the context of work and content of work (Johnson et al., 2005). The context of work in the health sector involves psychosocial risks in work organization and labor relations such as organizational function and culture, career development, role in the enterprise, home-work interface, decision control and latitude, and workplace interpersonal interactions.

Aspects of corporate service and culture are of particular importance: the organization as a problem-solving environment, and the organization as a task performance environment, and as a growth surrounding. Available evidence indicates that if the organization fails to live up the perceived environmental standards, then this is likely to result in increased levels of acute anxiety in the health care industry (Tennant, 2001). Numerous hazardous aspects of organizational duties and responsibilities exist in the healthcare sector. Role overload has over the years posed a significant challenge in the nursing field particularly due to the long term problem of nursing shortages faced by healthcare institutions. Role conflict also poses dangerous repercussions to the psychological well-being of healthcare providers. For example conflict among physicians, the dispute between doctors and nursing staff, or conflict between nurses and patient family could contribute to the increasing acute anxiety claims in the healthcare industry. The link between career development and the growing severe anxiety in the health care sector can be substantiated using national government move to cut back on healthcare budgets (Bhui et al., 2012). For example, healthcare budget reductions in the US have profound effects on an institution’s ability to provide critical care services which in adversely contributes to increased acute anxiety as physicians and nurses feel that they are not able to give patients the quality treatment and attention that they so rightfully deserve.

Legislative Requirements in Australia

In the content of work, psychological hazards relate to work organization and working conditions. Both qualitative and quantitative workload has been linked to acute anxiety (Sauter et al., 2009). The workload gets consideration depending on the speed at which work it gets completed and the control and nature of the pacing needs. The job design encompasses numerous psychosocial hazards such as work repetitiveness, uncertainty, high attention demands, and insufficient resources. For example, graduate nurses are motivated and eager to begin their nursing career, but they become disappointed and develop acute anxiety after realizing that a nurses’ job can be quite repetitive and routine. Uncertainty for nurses translates into a lack of performance feedback. Due to their auxiliary input, the effort put in by nurses in most occasions goes unnoticed, and they become uncertain about their future as nurses (job insecurity). Work schedules also add to anxiety levels among nurses and physicians due to the poor quality and reduced length of daytime sleep. Finally, physical hazards also contribute to increased stress among nurses and doctors due to the hands-on nature of their job description. There, healthcare environment embroils a lot of physically engaging activities that often add to the stress levels of health practitioners.

Secondly, this section of the paper will elaborate on Australia’s legislative requirement from a national point of view in explaining acute anxiety as an emerging problem in occupational health management. According to Work Health and Safety Act 2011 defines health as both physical and psychological well-being (Johnstone et al., 2011). The WHS legislation requires employers to make sure that work environments are both psychologically and mentally healthy for all workers. Specifically, the act explains that persons conducting a business or Undertaking (PCBU) have the primary responsibility to manage risks linked to exposure to worked based hazards that lead to psychological or physical harm. Also, workers have an obligation to care for their physical and mental well-being and not unfavorably affect the health and safety of other people. Workers are also obligated to comply with health and security policies such as WHS’s 2011 preventing and responding to workplace bullying code. Workplace bullying could contribute to the increasing acute anxiety claims, and the workplace bullying draft law places emphasis on every worker’s legal responsibility to prevent workplace bullying (Mendez et al., 2012).

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1992 prohibits employers from discriminating, harassing, or victimizing disabled employees (Basser & Jones, 2002). An employee is required to make reasonable adjustments for workers with mental health conditions. The DDA 1992 protects workers with and without mental disability thereby preventing the possibility of them developing acute anxiety disorders. The disability discrimination act recognizes that sometimes psychological injury can either directly or indirectly qualify as a disability within the context of the legislation. The Australian Human Rights Commission further developed a guide to the DDA stipulating that a person with a mental disability such as an anxiety disorder has to similar employment opportunities of a person without a mental impairment. While recognizing the emergence of acute stress claims in occupational health management, the Fair Work Act 2009 prohibits employers from taking adverse action against current, former, or prospective employees regardless of their mental disability (Act, 2009). The act depicts that it is unlawful for employers to dismiss physically or psychologically disabled employees for short-term absence from work because of injury or illness. In the Common Law employment contract duties, employers have the responsibility of providing and maintaining a safe working system environment failure of which the employer is liable to provide a safe working system.

Industry Practices for Minimization of Acute Anxiety

Finally, this section of the paper will cover standard industry practices for the minimization and elimination of acute anxiety and its impacts. The International Labor Organization (ILO), a UN specialized agency, developed two complementary strategies for tackling mental health concerns in the healthcare industry. The stress prevention checkpoints is an ergonomic approach based on sound practice with which to evaluate and intervene through checklists and a collection of guidelines that focus on workplace enhancement and deterrence of psychosocial hazards and work-related stress. Then, the training package SOLVE: assimilating health promotion into work guidelines focuses on enhancing individual well-being through occupational safety and health OHS policies to offer a unified response in addressing psychosocial health, potential addictions and their impacts on the work setting, and lifestyle habits. The ILO program provides a significant stimulus for action at work setting and national levels through the close participation of state governments, representative organizations, employers and workers (Forastieri, 2013).

In conclusion, acute anxiety at the work lace is increasingly becoming a dominant aspect of psychological hazards at the workplace. The categorization of psychosocial risks in the context of labor and the content of work pose dangerous repercussions on the mental state healthcare practitioners thus the emergence of acute anxiety. Elimination and minimization of severe stress at the workplace are possible with the implementation of the ILO two-fold strategies.

References

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