Stress Management for Primary Health Care Professionals

The National Health Service (NHS) is undergoing enormous change, which has led to many primary health care professionals experiencing pressure beyond their control and ability to cope. Primary care in Britain has taken on a new shape due to these changes and the members of the primary health care team are having to take additional responsibilities and working under tremendous pressure. Therefore, it is important to identify the sources of stress and find ways of dealing with them. Although there are a number of books on stress in other professions, there is no general book on stress and methods of coping in primary care. Stress Management for Primary Health Care Professionals is timely in the context of the NHS change, and the impact of this change on the primary health care professional. This is the first book to examine stress in primary care professionals and is aimed directly at primary health care professionals, students in medicine, nursing, social sciences and allied health professions. Also, it can be of value to the researchers working in this area. This book is the product of the research work of the authors, over the years, on primary health care professionals: general practitioners, practice managers, practice nurses, receptionists, health visitors, district nurses and community psychiatric nurses. The book is organised into 9 chapters. Chapter 1 briefly describes the history and background to the NHS in Britain, its structure, function, changes and reforms. It also mentions important roles of some of the members of the primary care team. In Chapter 2 the concept of stress is defined. Chapter 3 gives a general overview of occupational stress literature. Chapter 4 discusses individual differences and other conditioning variables as these influence the experiences of occupational stress. Chapter 5 considers the consequences of stress in terms of cost to the individual and organisation. Although a brief literature review on stress in primary health care professionals is included in Chapter 6, more emphasis is given on the authors' studies. Chapters 7 and 8 describe individual and organisational stress management strategies respectively that the primary health care professionals may find useful. The final chapter briefly mentions resources and training.