scholarly journals Perception Of Stress and Illness Among Nurses in Psychiatry

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-65
Author(s):  
Tomislav Bočkor ◽  
Josipa Kurtović ◽  
Ana Pavelić Tremac

Homeostasis is important for maintaining balance and normal functioning of the organism. Allostatic mechanisms further help to establish this balance. If the body is under stress for a longer period, a complex condition in the body called allostatic load occurs. If such a load lasts longer, the risk of developing diseases increases significantly. This study was conducted anonymously with the aim of determining the health status of male and female nurses in the Neuropsychiatric hospital “Dr. Ivan Barbot” in Popovača and their exposure to everyday stressors in the workplace. The main purpose was to examine the relationship between stress and the health status of nurses in relation to gender, age, and seniority. A total of 142 nurses participated. The Health Questionnaire and Workplace Stress Questionnaire were used. The results showed that the most common diseases nurses suffer from are cardiovascular diseases, thyroid diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, and allergies. Women showed higher sensitivity to stress than men. The most common stressors faced by nurses in the workplace are inadequate personal income, inadequate workspace and material resources for work, lack of staff, daily contingencies, 24-hour responsibility, and administrative work. This study found an association between age and, consequently, work experience with the likelihood of illness, although both the healthy and the sick perceive equal levels of stress. One disadvantage of this study is that it covers a large area and deals with general issues, but it can certainly be a starting point for further research. Many questions remain open, which means there is a need for further research and study of the link between stress and illness.

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 751-779
Author(s):  
Joanna Krasodomska ◽  
Jan Michalak ◽  
Katarzyna Świetla

Purpose This paper aims to explore accountants’ views on mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. It focuses on three main factors underpinning their understanding and attitude towards non-financial disclosures: general understanding of the concept, gender and work experience. Design/methodology/approach The study uses social identity theory as the theoretical framework. The findings are based on a survey conducted among 73 accountants in 2018. The questionnaire consisted of 86 questions divided into 9 main areas. The Mann–Whitney U test was used to determine if there are any significant differences between the accountants’ attitudes towards non-financial disclosures. Findings Study results suggest that the general knowledge of CSR reporting among accounting specialists is insufficient. The attitude towards mandatory CSR disclosures significantly differs between accountants who participated in training related to non-financial reporting and those who did not. Contrary to expectations, there were no significant differences in responses either between female and male accountants or between accountants at the beginning of their career path (with experience shorter than five years) and the more experienced ones. The paper contributes to social theory studies as it refers to the problem of the influence of professional associations, governments and big accounting firms on the transformation of accountants’ social identity. It also discusses the relations between the characteristics influencing personal identity and social identity of accountants in shaping their attitude towards mandatory non-financial disclosures. Practical implications The findings could be of interest to the higher education and professional certification institutions which should consider bringing accounting curricula more closely to the realities of the current business environment. Originality/value The study contributes to the body of literature mainly because it investigates a diversified sample of accountants in a relatively unexplored institutional setting. It may also serve as a starting point for research that more broadly explores accountants’ engagement in non-financial disclosures on CSR.


2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Traunmüller ◽  
Kerstin Gaisbachgrabner ◽  
Helmut Karl Lackner ◽  
Andreas R. Schwerdtfeger

Abstract. In the present paper we investigate whether patients with a clinical diagnosis of burnout show physiological signs of burden across multiple physiological systems referred to as allostatic load (AL). Measures of the sympathetic-adrenergic-medullary (SAM) axis and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis were assessed. We examined patients who had been diagnosed with burnout by their physicians (n = 32) and were also identified as burnout patients based on their score in the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS) and compared them with a nonclinical control group (n = 19) with regard to indicators of allostatic load (i.e., ambulatory ECG, nocturnal urinary catecholamines, salivary morning cortisol secretion, blood pressure, and waist-to-hip ratio [WHR]). Contrary to expectations, a higher AL index suggesting elevated load in several of the parameters of the HPA and SAM axes was found in the control group but not in the burnout group. The control group showed higher norepinephrine values, higher blood pressure, higher WHR, higher sympathovagal balance, and lower percentage of cortisol increase within the first hour after awakening as compared to the patient group. Burnout was not associated with AL. Results seem to indicate a discrepancy between self-reported burnout symptoms and psychobiological load.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-219
Author(s):  
Meindert E. Peters

Friedrich Nietzsche's influence on Isadora Duncan's work, in particular his idea of the Dionysian, has been widely discussed, especially in regard to her later work. What has been left underdeveloped in critical examinations of her work, however, is his influence on her earlier choreographic work, which she defended in a famous speech held in 1903 called The Dance of the Future. While commentators often describe this speech as ‘Nietzschean’, Duncan's autobiography suggests that she only studied Nietzsche's work after this speech. I take this incongruity as a starting point to explore the connections between her speech and Nietzsche's work, in particular his Thus Spoke Zarathustra. I argue that in subject and language Duncan's speech resembles Nietzsche's in important ways. This article will draw attention to the ways in which Duncan takes her cues from Nietzsche in bringing together seemingly conflicting ideas of religion and an overturning of morality; Nietzsche's notion of eternal recurrence and the teleology present in his idea of the Übermensch; and a renegotiation of the body's relation to the mind. In doing so, this article contributes not only to scholarship on Duncan's early work but also to discussions of Nietzsche's reception in the early twentieth century. Moreover, the importance Duncan ascribes to the body in dance and expression also asks for a new understanding of Nietzsche's own way of expressing his philosophy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 735-735
Author(s):  
Charles Hoy-Ellis ◽  
Hyun Kim ◽  
Karen Fredriksen Goldsen

Abstract LGBTQ older adults are at significantly increased risk for poor mental and physical health, likely consequential to lifelong bias. Allostatic load (AL), the net effect of “wear and tear” on the body resulting from repeated, chronic over-activation of the psychophysiological stress response system. Utilizing the Health Equity Promotion Model, the aim of this study was to test potential life course predictors of AL, including interpersonal violence, legal marriage, and identity management in a sample of LGBTQ adults 50 to 97 years of age (n=317). Results from a series of hierarchical linear regression models showed that adult physical abuse and late identity disclosure for those who had been in an opposite-sex marriage predicted higher AL in this sample of LGBTQ older adults, indicating need for increased research on bias over the life course as contributory to AL and biopsychosocial dysfunction among LGBTQ older adults.


Author(s):  
Li-Chung Pien ◽  
Wan‐Ju Cheng ◽  
Kuei-Ru Chou ◽  
Li-Chiu Lin

Work–family conflicts (WFCs) are common in the healthcare sector and pose significant health risks to healthcare workers. This study examined the effect of WFCs on the health status and nurses’ leaving intentions in Taiwan. A self-administered questionnaire was used to survey 200 female nurses’ experiences of WFC from a regional hospital. Data on psychosocial work conditions, including work shifts, job control, psychological job demands, and workplace justice, were collected. Health conditions were measured using the Beck Depression Inventory-II and self-rated health. Leaving intentions were measured using a self-developed questionnaire. The participants’ average work experience was 6.79 (Standard Deviation (SD) = 5.26) years, their highest educational level was university, and work shifts were mostly night and rotating shifts. Approximately 75.5% of nurses perceived high levels of WFCs. Leaving intentions were correlated with WFCs (r = 0.350, p < 0.01) and psychological work demands (r = 0.377, p < 0.01). After adjusting for age, educational level, and work characteristics, high levels of WFCs were associated with poor self-rated health, and depression, but not associated with high leaving intentions. Nurses’ experiences of high levels of WFCs greatly affected their health status.


Parasitology ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwendolen Rees

Scanning electron-micrographs have shown the covering of microvilli on the surface of the redia of Parorchis acanthus. In the contracted state the elongated microvilli with bulbous extremities seen in the surface grooves may be the result of compression. The surface of the epidermis of the cercaria is smooth on a large area of the ventral surface and lattice-like with microvilli, laterally, anteriorly, dorsally and on the tail. The spines on the body can be withdrawn into sheaths by the contraction of muscle fibres inserted into the basement lamina below each spine.I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr I. ap Gwynn of this department for preparing the scanning electron-micrographs and the School of Engineering Science, University of North Wales, Bangor for the use of their stereoscan. I should also like to thank Mr M. C. Bibby for technical assistance and Professor E. G. Gray and Dr W. Sinclair for assistance with the transmission electron-micrographs.


2001 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 94-98
Author(s):  
Marc Brodsky

The Kabuki Actors Study set out to explore the health status of Kabuki actors, their performance-related medical problems, and the nature and extent of their health care. Two hundred sixteen Kabuki performers voluntarily completed an anonymous three-page survey addressing their health issues. Thirty-eight percent of the actors reported a history of at least one significant medical condition, and 88% of them identified at least one musculoskeletal or nonmusculoskeletal problem associated with performance. Sixty-nine percent of the performers had visited a physician over the preceding year, and 30% of them had consulted nonphysician medical practitioners. Kabuki actors, the Kabuki management, and physicians can use the findings of this study as a starting point to investigate why these injuries occur and how to prevent and treat them. Pain severity scales or other measurable outcomes of therapy can be used to compare the efficacies of physician and nonphysician treatments.


Author(s):  
M.M. Nekrasova ◽  
◽  
I.V. Fedotova ◽  
S.A. Polevaya ◽  

Abstract: Introduction. Increasing information loads can lead to the development of professional stress and work-related illnesses in knowledge workers. The development and implementation of modern methods of control and correction of the functional state of employees in the conditions of activity is relevant. The study aims – to explore the dynamics of the functional state of knowledge workers in the conditions of modeling the cognitive load on the computer and during the training on neurofeedback (NFB) based on the parameters of the electroencephalogram (EEG). Materials and methods. 17 researchers (4 men and 13 women aged 22-63 years (34.8±3.4), with an average work experience of 12.1±3.3 years) participated in the study on the basis of voluntary informed consent. Results. A significant increase in the index of the alpha rhythm was shown by 29.4% of the subjects. It was found that the total power of the spectrum of heart rate variability (HRV) is higher, the adaptive risk is lower in the group that successfully passed alpha training (p<0.05). According to the results of continuous personalized heart rate telemetry, the dynamics of the functional state (FS) during the examination was determined for each subject. Conclusion. A significant influence of the state of neurohumoral regulation systems and adaptive reserves of the body on the success of the biofeedback training was established, which is the basis for the development of methodological approaches to the correction of FS, taking into account individual optimal management strategies.


Author(s):  
Anastasiya S. Kazitskaya ◽  
Oleg I. Bondarev ◽  
Maria S. Bugaeva ◽  
Anna G. Zhukova ◽  
Tatyana K. Yadykina

Introduction. The combined impact of unfavorable factors of the production environment in miners leads to the development of associated pathology of the bronchopulmonary and cardiovascular systems, the predisposition to which depends on the individual susceptibility of the body. In this regard, it is important to comprehensively study the pathogenetic mechanisms underlying the formation and course of occupational and work-related diseases for a personalized approach to the diagnosis, prevention and therapy of this pathology. The purpose of this study was to study the mechanisms of damage to the cardiovascular system in miners with dust lung pathology on the basis of morphological and genetic studies. Materials and methods. For genetic studies, venous blood drawing was conducted in 190 Kuzbass miners. The main group included 126 miners of the main professions with the previously proven diagnosis "dust lung pathology", the comparison group consisted of 64 workers without a proven diagnosis working in similar sanitary and hygienic conditions. Morphometric studies were carried out using autopsy material obtained during 80 forensic medical examinations of miners in the Kemerovo region. All the miners were divided into 4 groups depending on their underground work experience. The control group was formed from 20 cases of forensic medical examinations of men who died in road accidents and did not have organ pathology according to the results of autopsies. Results. The study of the autopsy material revealed the presence of morphostructural changes in the vascular walls of the miners’ hearts in the form of hypertrophy of the smooth muscle cells of the medial layers, thickening of the endothelial lining, and the development of fibroplastic changes in the perivascular zones. These changes began to form from the first years of work in the underground conditions and progressed with increasing work experience contributing to the "recalibration" of the heart vessels with the formation of the lumen "obstruction". One of the mechanisms of endothelial damage in miners was a change in the expression of the EDN1 gene, which regulates the synthesis of endothelin-1. The risk and resistance genotypes of the development of dust lung pathology for the rs5370 polymorphism of the EDN1 gene were identified. Morphostructural rearrangement of the endothelium in the combination with its pathological activation contributed to the occurrence of endothelial dysfunction in miners. Conclusions. The conducted studies of the parameters of the vascular endothelium indicate its key role in the pathogenesis of bronchopulmonary and cardiovascular pathology in miners of the main professions. Getting into the body of workers, particles of coal-rock dust lead to morphostructural rearrangement of the cells of the endothelial layer and its pathological activation. The contribution of molecular and genetic mechanisms to the development of occupational lung pathology and associated diseases of the circulatory system in miners is revealed. Ethics. The studies were carried out in compliance with the ethical standards of the Bioethical Committee of the Research Institute for Complex Problems of Hygiene and Occupational Diseases, elaborated on the basis of the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association "Ethical Principles for Conducting Human Scientific Medical Research" as amended in 2013 and the "Rules of Clinical Practice in the Russian Federation" approved by the Order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation No. 266 dated 19.06.2003. All workers were informed about their participation in the molecular-genetic study and gave written consent to carry it out. The research of the dead miners was based on the secondary examination of blocks and ready-made histological micro-preparations of the material of the Bureau for Forensic Medical Expert Examination of the cities of Novokuznetsk, Osinniki, and Prokopyevsk. The study of pathomorphological material was carried out in accordance with the Federal Law of 21.11.2011, No. 323-FZ "On the Fundamentals of Health Protection of Citizens in the Russian Federation", in particular, with Article 67 "Carrying out pathological and anatomical autopsies", Federal Law of 12.01.1996, No. 8-FZ "On burial and funeral business" (Article 5, paragraphs 1, 2), as well as on the basis of the Order of the Ministry of Health of April 29, 1994, No. 82 "On the procedure for conducting pathological and anatomical autopsy" (Annex to the Order of the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry of 29.04.1994 No. 82), the Order of the Ministry of Health of Russia of 24.03.2016. No. 179n "On the rules for conducting pathological and anatomical examinations".


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 542-566
Author(s):  
Jessica Wright

In late antique theological texts, metaphors of the brain were useful tools for talking about forms of governance: cosmic, political, and domestic; failed and successful; interior discipline and social control. These metaphors were grounded in a common philosophical analogy between the body and the city, and were also supported by the ancient medical concept of the brain as the source of the sensory and motor nerves. Often the brain was imagined as a monarch or civic official, governing the body from the head as from an acropolis or royal house. This article examines two unconventional metaphors of the brain in the work of the fifth-century Greco-Syrian bishop Theodoret of Cyrrhus—the brain as a treasure within the acropolis, and the brain as a node in an urban aqueduct—both of which adapt the structural metaphor of governance to reflect the changing political and economic circumstances of imperial Christianity. Drawing upon medical theories of the brain, Theodoret expands upon the conventional governance metaphor of brain function to encompass the economic and the spiritual responsibilities of the bishop-administrator. Just as architectural structures (acropolis, aqueduct) contain and distribute valuable resources (treasure, water) within the city, so the brain accumulates and redistributes nourishing substances (marrow, blood, pneuma) within the body; and just as the brain functions as a site for the transformation of material resources (body) into spiritual goods (mind), so the bishop stands as a point of mediation between earthly wealth and the treasures of heaven.


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