Abstract
This study examined coping strategies and occupational burnout in a sample of 118 health-care providers. Subjects who participated in a 6-week program designed to improve coping reported significant short-term decreases in emotional exhaustion and lack of personal accomplishment, two dimensions of burnout. Subjects who received 1-hr coping “refresher” sessions at 5, 11, and 17 months showed consistent decreases in burnout throughout the 2-year period. However, those who did not receive the refresher sessions following the 6-week course showed only temporary improvement. Results indicate that health-care providers can be taught to employ adaptive coping strategies that improve levels of burnout, but long-term changes are achieved only through long-term coping training.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Allred, K. D., and Smith, T. W. (1989). Hardy personality: Cognitive and physiological responses to evaluative threat. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 56(2): 257-266.
Black, D. R., and Frauenknecht, M. (1977). Developing entry-level competencies in school health educators: Evaluation of a problem-solving curriculum for stress management. Educ. Treat. Children 20(4): 404-424.
Cattell, R. B. (1966). Patterns of change: Measurement in relation to state dimension, trait change, lability, and process concepts. In Handbook of Multivariate Experimental Psychology, Rand McNally, Chicago.
Cherniss, C., and Krantz, D. (1983). The ideological community as an antidote to burnout in the human services. In Farber, B. A. (ed.), Stress and Burnout in the Human Service Professions, Pergamon Press, New York.
Contrada, R. (1989). Type A behavior, personality hardiness, and cardiovascular responses to stress. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 57: 895-903.
Deary, I. J., Agius, R. M., and Sadler, A. (1996). Personality and stress in consultant psychiatrists. Int. J. Soc. Psychiatry 42(2): 112-123.
Derogatis, L., Lipman, R., Covi, L., Rickels, K., and Uhlenhuth, E. (1976). The Hopkins Symptom Checklist: A self-report symptoms inventory. Behav. Sci. 19: 1-14.
Folkman, S., and Lazarus, R. S. (1980). An analysis of coping in a middle-aged community sample. J. Health Soc. Behav. 21: 219-239.
Folkman, S., Schaefer, C., and Lazarus, R. S. (1979). Cognitive processes as mediators of stress and coping. In Hamilton, V., and Warburton, D. M. (eds.), Human Stress and Cognition: An Information Processing Approach, Wiley, London, pp. 265-298.
Funk, S. C. (1992). Hardiness: A review of theory and research. Health Psychol. 11(5): 335-345.
Funk, S. C., and Houston, B. K. (1987). A critical analysis of the Hardiness Scale's validity and utility. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 53: 572-578.
Genellen, R. J., and Blaney, P. H. (1984). Hardiness and social support as moderators of the effects of life stress. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 47: 156-163.
Gmelch, W., and Chan, W. (1995). Administrator stress and coping effectiveness: Implications for administrator evaluation and development. J. Personnel Eval. Educ. 9(3): 275-285.
Hooley, L. (1997). Circumventing burnout in AIDS care. Am. J. Occup. Ther. 51(9): 759-766.
House, J. S., Strecher, V., Meltzner, H. L., and Robbins, C. A. (1986). Occupational stress and health among men and women in the Tecumseh Community health study. J. Health Soc. Behav. 27: 62-77.
Keane, A., Ducette J., and Adler, D. C. (1985). Stress in ICU and non-ICU nurses. Nurs. Res. 34(4): 231-236.
Kobasa, S. C. (1979). Stressful life events, personality and health: An inquiry into hardiness. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 37: 1-11.
Kobasa, S. C., and Puccetti, M. C. (1983). Personality and social resources in stress resistance. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 45: 839-850.
Kobasa, S. C., Maddi, S. R., and Kahn, S. (1982). Hardiness and health: A prospective study. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 42: 168-177.
Lazarus, R. S., and Folkman, S. (1984). Coping and adaptation. In Gentry, W. D. (ed.), The Handbook of Behavioral Medicine, Guilford Press, New York, pp. 282-325.
Lazarus, R. S., and Launier, R. (1978). Stress-related transactions between person and environment. In Pervin, L. A., and Lewis, M. (eds.), Internal and External Determinants of Behavior, Plenum, New York, pp. 287-327.
Maddi, S. R., and Kobasa, S. C. (1984). The Hardy Executive: Health Under Stress, Dow Jones-Irwin, Homewood, IL.
Maslach, C. (1978). The client role in staff burn-out. J. Soc. Issues 34(4): 111-124.
Maslach, C., and Jackson, S. (1981). The Maslach Burnout Inventory, Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, CA.
Maslach, C., and Jackson, S. (1986). Maslach Burnout Inventory Manual, Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, CA.
McCranie, E. W., Lambert, V. A., and Lambert, C. E. (1987). Work stress, hardiness, and burnout among hospital staff nurses. Nurs. Res. 36: 374-378.
Mearns, J., and Mauch, T. G. (1998). Negative mood regulation expectancies predict anger among police officers and buffer and effects of job stress. J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. 186(2): 120-125.
Nowack, K. M. (1989). Coping style, cognitive hardiness, and health status. J. Behav. Med. 12: 145-158.
Nowack, K. M. (1990). Initial development and validation of a stress and health risk factor instrument. Am. J. Health Promot. 4: 173-180.
Nowack, K. M. (1991). Psychosocial predictors of physical health status. Work Stress 5: 117-131.
Roth, D. L., Weibe, D. J., Fillingim, R. B., and Shay, K. A. (1989). Life events, fitness, hardiness, and health: A simultaneous analysis of proposed stress-resistance effects. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 57: 136-142.
Rowe, M. M. (1997). Understanding hardiness, stress, temperament, coping and burnout in health care professionals. Am. J. Health Behav. 21(3): 163-171.
Rowe, M. M. (1998). Hardiness as a stress mediating factor of burnout among healthcare providers. Am. J. Health Stud. 14(1): 16-20.
Schaubroeck, J., and Merritt, D. E. (1997). Divergent effects of job control on coping with work stressors: The key role of self-efficacy. Acad. Manage. J. 40(3): 738-754.
Scheier, M. F., and Carver, C. S. (1987). Dispositional optimism and physical well-being: The influence of generalized outcome expectancies on health. J. Person. 55: 169-210.
Schmeid, L. A., and Lawler, K. A. (1986). Hardiness, Type A behavior, and the stress-illness relationship in working women. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 51: 1218-1223.
Simendinger, E. A., and Moore, T. F. (1985). Organizational Burnout in Health Care Facilities, Aspen, Rockville, MD.
Sheppard, W. D., Staggers, F. J., and John L. (1997). The effects of a stress-management program in a high security government agency. Anxiety Stress Coping Int. J. 10(4): 341-350.
Speilberger, C. D. (1983). Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, CA.
Stewart, S. M., Betson, C., Lam, T. H., Marshall, I. B., Lee, P. W. H., and Wong, C. M. (1997). Predicting stress in first year medical students: A longitudinal study. Med. Educ. 31(3): 163-168.
Topf, M. (1989). Personality hardiness, occupational stress, and burnout in critical care nurses. Res. Nurs. Health 12: 179-186.
Vialiano, P. P., Maiuro, R. D., Russo, J., Katon, W., DeWolfe, D., and Hall, G. (1990). Coping profiles associated with psychiatric, physical health, work, and family problems. Health Psychol. 9: 348-376.
Welzant, V., Torpey, R., and Sienkilewski, K. L. (1995). Developing a critical incident stress debriefing team in a mental health care system. J. Am. Psychiatr. Nurses Assoc. 1(6): 177-182.
Wiebe, D. J. (1991). Hardiness and stress moderation: A test of proposed mechanism. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 60(1): 89-99.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rowe, M.M. Teaching Health-Care Providers Coping: Results of a Two-Year Study. J Behav Med 22, 511–527 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018661508593
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018661508593