EVALUATION ON THE INCIDENCE OF OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AMONG RADIOGRAPHERS IN PORT HARCOURT METROPOLIS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

References

Appendix I

List of Tables

Table 1a: Sex and Age of Respondents

Table 1b: Levels of Education and Years of working experience

Table 1c: Respondents hospitals and Rank

Table 2a: Incidence of Occupational stress in the department

Table 2b: Average number of patients received in the various hospitals

Table 3: Workload pattern among radiographers in the department

Table 4: Sources of occupational stress among radiographers

Table 5: Effects of occupational stress among radiographers

Table 6: Relationship between hospitals on the rate of occurrence of occupational stress in the department

Table 7: Relationship between hospitals on the time of occurrence of occupational stress in the department

Table 8: Relationship between the workplace patterns among radiographers in the hospitals

Table 9: Relationship between sources of occupational stress among radiographers in both hospitals

Figure 1: Rate of Occurrence of stress among radiographers

Figure 2: Time of occurrence of occupational stress among radiographers

Figure 3: Stress management in the workplace

Stress can be defined as an interference disturbing an individual’s well being physically, emotionally and mentally. It can be categorized based on its physical and physiological effects on a person, and can be a mental, physical or emotional strain1. When this stress is related to a profession it is termed Occupational Stress2. This includes thoughts, feelings and physiological reactions that can occur as a result of stressful events3, which can on the long run be detrimental to the professional in relation to his profession. Occupational stress can occur in various professions but in line with this research, the researcher is relating the incidence of occupational stress in the radiography profession.

The radiographer also known as a medical radiation technologist and a medical imaging scientist is someone who performs imaging of the human body for diagnosis and treatment of medical problems. His field of work varies from hospitals to clinics, medical laboratories and private practice4, and sometimes in the industry (when it comes to industrial radiography). Along the line in his field of work he undergoes some stress by various factors like role ambiguity which can be due to the unavailability of enough staff in the medical centre he is working in, work related problems based on the challenges he undergoes when carrying out medical investigations and diagnosis due to the type of equipments he is using to carry them out, role conflict, perceived stress, and social support3. Other factors are negative work load, isolation, extensive hours worked, toxic work environments, lack of autonomy, difficult relationships among coworkers and management, management bullying, harassment and lack of opportunities or motivation to advancement in one’s skill level 5.  These factors cause stress that has a lot of negative effect on the radiographer as it tends to affect his relationship with the patient, his family, his efficiency in the department and most times the stress affects his health. Occasionally stress experienced by radiographers can adversely affect patient care and may possibly trigger psychological conflicts in the radiographer, which concomitantly grinds efficiency in service delivery6. 

Occupational stress among radiographers can also occur when there is a discrepancy between the demands of the environment or workplace and an individual’s ability to carry out and complete these demands and this is known as Cognitive Appraisal2. Occupational stress among radiographers can be divided into Biomechanical stress e.g musculoskeletal symptoms which occurs due to constant stress and strain of the upper and lower back in the course of manipulation of old x-ray units2, these symptoms cause pain, disability and could lead to loss of employment of workers7; and Psychosocial Stress which is stress involving psychological processes and social processes8.

 Daugtherly observed that occupational stress can be caused by tension, a situation or a factor which can lead to burnout9. Duquette et al also observed that in an environment where radiographers are very few, there’s a tremendous increase in workload, which in theoretical terms predisposes the individual to increased occupational stress and if this is not checked, burnout ensures and this can lead to a state of extreme tiredness combined with feelings of failure and frustration10. 

These are some factors that have been noticed by the researcher among radiographers especially those working in the Port Harcourt metropolis. Based on the Association of Radiographers Registration Board of Nigeria, there are only about 500 registered radiographers in Nigeria11, with about only 70 registered radiographers in Port Harcourt Metropolis which translates to increased patient to radiographer ratio. In addition to this, the current health sector reform in Nigeria has laid an emphasis on efficiency and increased service delivery to patient’s satisfaction. Therefore this has led to more pressure on the radiographers in trying to increase their services in the department and thus creating a link between high workload and notable stress among radiographers in the nation especially in this region. 

There has been a lot of research carried out on occupational stress in the world and also in various aspects of Nigeria as a nation but to the best of the researcher’s knowledge there has been no published study carried out on the Incidence of Occupational Stress among radiographers in this region and this led to the researcher’s objective of evaluating the incidence of occupational stress among radiographers in this region.