The Art of Nursing

CONDITIONS OF WORK AND WELFARE
FACILITIES BRANCH

Working paper
CONDI/T/WP.4/1996

Work-related stress in nursing:
Controlling the risk to health

Professor Tom Cox and Dr. Amanda Griffiths
Center for Organizational Health and Development
University of Nottingham with Professor Sue Cox
Center for Hazard and Risk Management
Loughborough University of Technology

International Labour Office Geneva

Work-related stress in nursing:
Controlling the risk to health

Professor Tom Cox and Dr. Amanda Griffiths
Center for Organizational Health and Development
University of Nottingham with Professor Sue Cox
Center for Hazard and Risk Management
Loughborough University of Technology

Note: Working Papers are preliminary documents circulated in a limited number of copies solely to stimulate discussion and critical comment.

International Labour Office Geneva

Prelim page ii
Copyright page

ISBN 92-2-............

iii

Table of contents

Table of contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Part 1. Stress in nursing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1.
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2.
Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3.
Work hazards, stress and health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4.
Psycho-social hazards and stress in nursing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

References: C. Adey: “Stress: Who cares?”, in Nursing Times, Vol. 28, 1987, pp. 52-53. D.G. Barnes: “Times are tough — Brother can you paradigm”, in Risk Analysis, Vol. 14, 1994, pp C.L. Cooper: Psychosocial stress in cancer (Chichester, John Wiley, 1984). S. Cox: Risk assessment toolkit (Loughborough, Centre for Extension Studies, Loughborough University of Technology, 1992). S. Cox and R. Tait: Safety, reliability and risk management (London, Butterworth Heinemann, 1991). T. Cox: Stress (London, Macmillan, 1978). T. Cox: Stress research and stress management: Putting theory to work (Sudbury, HSE Books, 1993). T. Cox and S. Cox: Psychosocial and organizational hazards: Monitoring and control , European Series in Occupational Health No.5 (Copenhagen, World Health Organization, 1993). methodology (London, Taylor and Francis, 1994). P. Hingley: “The humane face of nursing”, in Nursing Mirror, No. 159, 1984, pp. 19-22. P. Hingley and C.L. Cooper: Stress and the nurse manager (Chichester, John Wiley, 1986). P. Hingley and P. Harris: “Burn-out at senior level”, in Nursing Times, Vol. 30, 1986, pp. 28-29. Part I: Overview and psychosocial stressors”, in AAOHN Journal, Vol. 37, 1989, pp. 232-237. ILO: Conditions of Work Digest on Preventing stress at work, Vol. 11, No. 2, 1992. L. Levi: Preventing work stress (Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley, 1981). A. Moreton-Cooper: “The end of the rope”, in Nursing Mirror, No. 159, 1984, pp. 16-19. John Wiley, 1988). R. Skinner: Microbiological risk assessment and public health, paper presented to the International Conference on Risk Assessment, London, 1992.