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Stress and job satisfaction among social workers, community nurses and community psychiatric nurses: implications for the care management model
Author(s) -
ParryJones Beth,
Grant Gordon,
McGrath Morag,
Caldock Kerry,
Ramcharan Paul,
Robinson Catherine A.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
health and social care in the community
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.984
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1365-2524
pISSN - 0966-0410
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2524.1998.00123.x
Subject(s) - job satisfaction , social work , nursing , psychology , psychiatry , medicine , social psychology , political science , law
The introduction in April 1993 of new arrangements for assessment and care management following the NHS and Community Care Act 1990 (Department of Health 1990a) heralded a period of major transition for front‐line workers in the health and social services. Policy expectations for the development of the purchaser/provider split and the ‘new managerialism’ have posed unprecedented ideological, organizational and professional challenges. Two years after the full implementation of the reforms a postal survey of the experiences of care managers about policy and practice changes was undertaken in Wales. This paper focuses on the stresses and satisfactions of care management practice among three distinct groups of front‐line workers: social workers, community nurses and community psychiatric nurses. The results of multiple regression analyses, corroborated by qualitative data, implicate an increased workload in general and administrative work in particular, combined with reduced opportunities for client contact, as the main sources of stress. Being able to control or shape those factors impinging on the experience of stress and job satisfaction appears to lie at the heart of the dilemma. Practice and policy implications are considered.