• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.276-281
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• 2017

Background: The present study was carried out to assess the relationship between sickness absence and occupational stress, sleep quality, and amplitude and stability of circadian rhythm as well as to determine contributing factors of sickness absence. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted on 400 randomly selected employees of an Iranian gas company. The data were collected using Pittsburgh sleep quality index, Karolinska sleepiness scale, circadian type inventory, and Osipow occupational stress questionnaires. Results: The mean age and job tenure of the participants were $33.18{\pm}5.64years$ and $6.06{\pm}4.99years$, respectively. Also, the participants had been absent from work on average 2.16 days a year. According to the results, 209 participants had no absences, 129 participants had short-term absences, and 62 participants had long-term absences. The results showed a significant relationship between short-term absenteeism and amplitude of circadian rhythm [odds ratio (OR) = 6.13], sleep quality (OR = 14.46), sleepiness (OR = 2.08), role boundary (OR = 6.45), and responsibility (OR = 5.23). Long-term absenteeism was also significantly associated with amplitude of circadian rhythm (OR = 2.42), sleep quality (OR = 21.56), sleepiness (OR = 6.44), role overload (OR = 4.84), role boundary (OR = 4.27), and responsibility (OR = 3.72). Conclusion: The results revealed that poor sleep quality, amplitude of circadian rhythm, and occupational stress were the contributing factors for sickness absence in the study population.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.145-158
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• 2016

Objective: This study investigated the moderating effect of emotional dysregulation on the relationship between teacher efficacy and job stress among teachers in the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). Methods: The participants included 586 ECEC teachers from 99 centers in Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, Daejeon, Chungcheong-do, Jeolla-do, and Gyeongsang-do. The data were analyzed through frequencies, percentages, and Pearson's correlations using SPSS 21.0 (IBM Co., Armonk, NY). To analyze the moderating effect, Ping's (1996) two-step approach was used via AMOS 20.0 (IBM Co., Armonk, NY). Results: The main findings are as follows. First, the mean scores of ECEC teacher efficacy and job stress showed above the average, and the mean score of emotional dysregulation was the nearly average. Second, fit statistics indicated that the proposed model, as revised, provided an acceptable fit to the sample data. This proposed model showed that the emotional dysregulation of teachers in ECEC had a moderating effect on the relationship between teacher efficacy and job stress. Conclusion: These findings imply that the ECEC teachers showed the higher level of self-trust and self-confidence than average regarding their own work, and suffered from the work overload. Also, the positive and supportive working environment would help the ECEC teachers to reduce their emotional dysregulation. In addition, there was a moderating effect of the ECEC teachers' emotional dysregulation on the relationship between teacher efficacy and job stress. These findings imply that the workshop or counselling programs need to be provided to teachers in order to help control their emotion dysregulation and reduce their job stress.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.568-579
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to understand and describe the hospital workers' experience related to the hospital evaluation program implemented in Korea between 2004 and 2009. Methods: During 2010, data were collected using focus group interviews. Four focus group interviews were held with a total of 28 hospital workers participating. All interviews were recorded and transcribed as they were spoken, and data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Nine themes emerged from the analysis: 1) Positive change in the necessity of the evaluation; 2) Improvement in the hospital system, facilities, and human resources; 3) Unity through cooperation among departments; 4) Nursing work overload; 5) Lack of physicians' awareness and responsibilities; 6) Unfair and unrealistic evaluation items; 7) Lack of credibility of the outcome; 8) Shifting responsibility for negative outcomes to the workers; 9) Lack of pragmatic utility. Conclusion: The results of the study demonstrate that the hospital evaluation program played a key role in improving some work environments and communication among departments. At the same time, they show various negative themes resulting from the context of very authoritarian hospital systems and a connection-oriented society in Korea.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.1-16
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• 2018

Large corporations have the work and roles of employees clearly defined in accordance with their established internal structure whereas small and mid-sized firms may lack an official job specification or a written job description, causing ambiguity in the role of employees. In IT service companies, especially, there is a relatively large number of tasks requiring one person to play multiple roles and they are often highly dependent on few key players. In this reality where about 80% of the job seekers end up in SMEs, it is therefore necessary to look into how the turnover factors such as job strain and occupational burnout caused by the role ambiguity from extra work affect the turnover intentions of small and medium sized IT service firm employees. The outcome of this study is as follows. First, the relationship between job strain and turnover intention has been examined to find that a weak inverted U shaped relationship exists between role overload, which is a subset of job strain, and turnover intention. Second, the hypothesis based on the competing values framework has been tested that the fitness with organizational leadership and culture would moderate the relationship between job strain and turnover intention and it has been confirmed that the degree of relationship between role conflict and role ambiguity, the subsets of job strain, and turnover intention has changed. In conclusion, in order to discourage turnover intention, it is necessary to increase the fitness with the organization and leadership or generate a sufficient level of strain in case of an organization with low fitness.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.262-265
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• 2020

Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) poses an important occupational health risk to health workers (HWs) that has attracted global scrutiny. To date, several thousand HWs globally have been reported as infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus that causes the disease. It is therefore a public health priority for policymakers to understand risk factors for this vulnerable group to avert occupational transmission. A rapid review was carried out on 20 April 2020 on Covid-19 risk factors among HWs in PubMed, Google Scholar, and EBSCOHost Web (Academic Search Complete, CINAHL Complete, MEDLINE with Full Text, CINAHL with Full Text, APA PsycInfo, Health Source-Consumer Edition, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition) and WHO Global Database. We also searched for preprints on the medRxiv database. We searched for reports, reviews, and primary observational studies (case control, case cross-over, cross-sectional, and cohort). The review included studies conducted among HWs with Covid-19 that reported risk factors irrespective of their sample size. Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria. Lack of personal protective equipment, exposure to infected patients, work overload, poor infection control, and preexisting medical conditions were identified as risk factors for Covid-19 among HWs. In the context of Covid-19, HWs face an unprecedented occupational risk of morbidity and mortality. There is need for rapid development of sustainable measures that protect HWs from the pandemic.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.130-139
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• 2019

This study identified the level of task stress experienced by fire protection system management workers and analyzed the effects of task stress on job satisfaction and proposed future response. First, task stress according to background cause showed differences in relation to age, position, monthly salary, total career, license, and task, but there was no difference in relation to academic background. Second, of the sub-parameters of stress, physical environment, task demand, organizational system, lack of reward, and workplace culture have negative effects on job satisfaction as stress increases, while interpersonal relation conflict and job insecurity do not have any effect. In the future, it will be necessary to investigate the empirical causes of work overload and to study organization-level stress relief measures.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.250-260
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the role experiences of occupational health nurse. The research question was "what are daily experiences in practice?" Methods: The data were collected through the focus-group interviews with nine occupational health nurses and analyzed by the grounded theory of Strauss and Corbin (1998). Results: The core category on occupational health nurse role experience was named as "struggling alone with the dual role". The causal conditions included 'unfamiliar area' and 'new work'. The contextual conditions included 'overload of work, 'tasks beyond OHN job' and 'disharmony with colleagues'. The intervening conditions were analyzed as supportive factors and discouraging factors. There were action/interaction strategies 'getting information about tasks', 'working as a professional', 'establishing a cooperative relationship', 'seeking help' by trying to regulate the phenomenon. Finally they succeed in 'establishing the identity' and 'feeling proud', but sometimes they could be 'suffering from low morale', or 'considering turnover'. Conclusion: Through these results, it can be explained that occupational health nurses have been exerting themselves to establish their role with various situation through the conflicted context. Based on the findings, we suggest developing the diverse continuing education programs to be tailored for OHN's needs and reinforcing the occupational health services under the legal and political support.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.191-196
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• 2018

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 5 different personalities on job stress in physical therapists. Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Methods: Structured self-report questionnaires consisted of demographic items, 5 types of personalities, and occupational stress. A questionnaire was distributed to 420 physical therapists working in Seoul and Incheon who had voluntarily agreed to participate in the study after the purpose of the study was explained. Of the 420 questionnaires, 405 questionnaires were collected and showed a recovery rate of 96.4%, of which 28 cases were excluded, leaving a total of 377 questionnaires being used for analyses. Pearson correlation analysis was performed to investigate the correlation of job stress and five personalities types. In addition, multiple regression analysis was performed to investigate the effect of general and occupational characteristics of physical therapist on job stress and the effect of personality type on occupational stress. All statistical significance levels were set at p<0.05. Results: The highest number of subjects, which were the physical therapists, showed the tendency to have a sincere personality, followed by affinity, openness, extroversion, and neuroticism. Physical therapists reported to be the most stressed in the order of professional role conflict, overload of work, work relation with a physician and supervisor, interpersonal relationship with patient and caregiver. The higher the level of affinity and sincerity, the lower the amount of stress received by the therapist from the interpersonal relationships between the patient and caregivers. On the other hand, the greater the level of openness and sincerity, the lower the stress levels related to professional role conflict. Conclusions: This study showed that the personality type and job stress of physiotherapists had a statistically significant effect. It is very important for physiotherapists to find their own way of coping with stress, which is satisfactory and appropriate for their job, because it is related not only to individual problems but also to the quality of patient care and medical services. Therefore, it is necessary to continue conducting research on how to relieve the stress levels of physical therapists according to their personality characteristics.

• 한국노년학
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.97-109
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• 2011

The purpose of this work is to examine how work stressors are related to the burnout among staff in long-term care facilities for the elderly. This study offers some responses to a growing stress and burnout for the long-term care workers. The demand for long-term care workers is set to rise in light of an increasing share of older people and dependent elderly. Long-term care workers provide long-term care services to persons with a reduced degree of functional, physical or cognitive capacity. Cross-sectional survey data were collected from 216 staff in long-term care facilities. The standardised Maslach Burnout Inventory(MBI) was used to assess levels of burnout in long-term care workers. The MBI consists of 22 items using a 5-point Likert scale, measuring three sub-scales of burnout; Emotional exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal accomplishment. Data were analyzed using regression. This study is empirically tested the degree of association between burnout and its antecedents. The majority of differences in burnout could be explained by work stressors such as client relationship, job overload, job role conflict, and conflicts with clients' family. The study also identified workers' perceptions of their image in society and emotional support as predictors of burnout. Therefore long-term care facilities are encouraged to review their practices so that workers well-being is supported. The study findings suggest attention for organizational oriented initiatives to cope with burnout.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.10 no.9
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• pp.237-247
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the level and intensity of emotional labor of physical therapists and occupational therapists, and to identify the factors affecting them. Cross-sectional study was conducted on physical therapists and occupational therapists across the country using self-populated questionnaire. A total of 2,000 questionnaires were distributed to retrieve 1,500 questionnaires(75%), of which 1,374 questionnaires(68.7%) were finally analyzed, excluding 126 that answered duplicates or were missing answers. Multi-linear regression was performed to identify factors on the strength of emotional labor. According to the analysis results, high-risk groups in the areas under 'Emotional demand and regulation' and 'Overload and conflict in customer service' and 'Emotional disharmony and hurt' were 29.4%, 19.0% and 22.0% respectively, especially in 'Emotional demand and regulation', 'Overload and conflict in customer service', 'Emotional disharmony and hurt' for women working days, and 49% of daily work hours. Accordingly, we will be able to regularly screen physical therapists and occupational therapists for dangerous groups, and manage the intensity of emotional labor through the creation of a therapist's working environment, such as limiting overtime hours and assigning appropriate number of patients. Through this study, the grounds and methods for mitigating the negative effects of emotional labor and mediating emotional labor should be provided.