The following are quotes from the NHS Employers Web site:
Stress is responsible for 30 per cent of sickness absence in the NHS, costing the service an estimated £300m to £400m per year.
An average of 31 days are lost for each case of stress.
Employees who do not suffer from stress are happier and more productive. Dealing with workplace stress will result in reduced sickness absence, better performance, improved commitment and reductions in accidents.
Staff who are not stressed will value their time at work.
Productivity will be highest where employee well-being forms part of the corporate philosophy and culture of the organization. Senior managers must be committed to the idea that staff are their organization’s most valuable asset.
Stressed staff are also likely to be less customer-focused, so dealing with stress can improve the patient experience – and patient outcomes.
Direct improvements can be significant. For example, reductions in waiting times and the ability to see more patients.
Work-related stress has serious financial implications for organizations. Stressed staff will take more sick leave; apart from the affect on services this will leave gaps that need to be filled, often through overtime or agency staff.
Investment in stress reduction can be shown to be effective. For example, on average, stress accounts for around 30 per cent of a trust’s sickness absence bill.
Courts have awarded significant amounts to employees who have suffered from work-related stress: one local authority’s bill for costs and compensation was around £500,000; others have paid £100,000 and £67,000 in compensation.
Staff Turnover
Staff who suffer from work-related stress are less likely to stay with the organization. Not only will this lead to higher recruitment costs, but it will also mean more costs in training new staff as well as the hard to quantify losses caused through the departure of experienced staff.
As frightening as some of those facts are, we all know the reality is that whilst they may be given due consideration in policy, they are not always considered in operation. Exposing staff to sometimes intolerable levels of stress is at the very least counter-productive. It is, potentially at least, illegal, it is certainly immoral, and the stress suffered by staff directly or indirectly affects the services provided to patients and the Trust’s own ‘Psychological Well-Being at work Policy' acknowledges that fact in its opening statement. Managers who either subject staff to stress, or are complacent and apathetic in the management of that stress, and its causes, severely limit the operational value of those staff to the Trust, and so are hardly, by definition, ‘managing’ staff. It's not entirely clear what the point is in employing managers who don't manage. We’re all part of the intricate machinery of healthcare delivery, and to provide the best quality care we all need to be corrosion-free and well-oiled.
Work related stress is a real issue which is far too frequently treated dismissively with disinterest, and even derision. Stress can be caused by a variety of issues, some of which may affect some people, but may not affect others, and should be treated and managed on an individual level, as well as the wider considerations at an organizational level. And your employer has a legal obligation to provide the effective management of stress at all levels, not just to produce prose packed policies which say they do.
A certain amount of stress may help your body to prepare for certain challenges, so it's pretty much impossible to live without any stress. But excessive levels of stress, especially if it is persistent, can cause physiological and psychological problems.
So that your body can respond almost instantly to challenges, many of its control mechanisms happen as natural unconscious responses. This involuntary control of biological responses such as how fast your heart beats, is achieved by a network of nerves called the autonomic nervous system. This is an essential part of the physical process that readies your body for dealing with certain situations, or running from them. As well as triggering responses in muscles, such as your heart, your autonomic nervous system sends signals to your hormonal system, triggering the release of chemical messengers such as adrenaline. These are released into your bloodstream and travel all around your body contributing to the "fight or flight" response by, for example, making you more alert, boosting your blood pressure and releasing sugars into your bloodstream. This results in a heightened - or stressed - state that prepares your body for optimum performance in dealing with the situation.
The modern stresses we face in our everyday lives such as in work related stress don't particularly require a fight or flight response, but they do however still release the same stress hormones, and if the chemicals that are released during stressful situations accumulate from not being used, because they are not required, then their effects are felt by the body. A build-up of adrenaline and noradrenaline increases blood pressure, heart rate, and the amount that you sweat. Cortisol prevents your immune system from functioning properly, as well as releasing fat and sugar into your blood stream, and essentially they have nowhere to go. When these chemicals are continually produced over a period of time they can damage your health and they can ironically reduce your ability to cope with stress.
Stress and illnesses
The exact role of stress in causing illnesses isn't known. However, what is known is that stress can temporarily weaken the immune system. And put under too much stress, your body becomes exhausted.
If you are stressed, you will also be more exposed to risk factors for diseases. For example, smokers may smoke more if they are stressed, and people who drink alcohol to relieve stress could become dependent on it. In the long term this will increase your risk of having a heart attack or stroke, and of developing certain cancers. Overall, if your body is subjected to the effects of long-term stress you are at greater risk of developing disease or dying prematurely.
To repeat that: If you are being subjected to uncontrolled levels of stress, work-related stress in this context, you are put at a greater risk of developing desease and dying prematurely.
SYMPTOMS OF STRESS
Behavioural symptoms of stress include anger, depression, anxiety, obesity and over-eating, under-eating and loss of appetite or anorexia, increased or excessive dependence of alcohol, if you smoke - you'll smoke more, increased coffee consumption, nail-biting, excessive and continuing irritability with other people, substance abuse, difficulty making decisions, inability to concentrate, increased and suppressed anger, loss of sense of humour, paranoia, feeling unable to cope with life, feeling out of control, jump from one job to another without finishing things, excessive emotion & crying at small irritations, lack of interest in anything other than work, permanently tired even after sleep, decreased sex drive / libido.
Physical symptoms include chest pains, constipation or diarrhoea, cramps or muscle spasms, dizziness, fainting spells, nail biting, nervous twitches, pins and needles, feeling restless, a tendency to sweat, sexual difficulties such as erectile dysfunction or a loss of sexual desire, breathlessness, muscular aches, and difficulty sleeping (Physical).
