Arden University Cert HE Health care management Essential skills health care management portfolio STU179207 Fiona Fletcher 1865 This essay will discuss different factors which will contribute to stress in a work environment. It will identify what burnout is, what causes a burnout and how a burnout can be reduced. It will discuss emotional intelligence and how different people can use emotional intelligence to reduce a burnout. This essay will also discuss a few different ways to reduce stress which contributes to a workplace environment. Task 1 – Personal Development plan Soft skills have an increased relevancy in the environment continuously changing. When students and employers were examined and compared to carry out research on perceptions, the importance of soft skills in different countries in Europe the results shown that a high percentage of respondents over the past ten years consider soft skills more important than graduates. Discussions and debates with in the current literature on higher education management is related to graduates quality and lack in soft skills which are essential in the labour market today and will be necessary to employ individuals. There are many different soft skills with different levels of priority. A paper suggest that companies and Higher Education institutions need to work together to increase student’s awareness of the importance of soft skills and to guide them to take responsibility as individuals to develop their essential skills so they can adapt to the changing labour which will help their employability improve. A discussion debates that Higher Education graduates lack soft/transferable skills that are essential in todays labour market and are necessary to increase employability. Higher Education have been blamed for not preparing their students adequately and it’s results in students continuous being high lighted for their lack in transferable skills and regard them responsible for employability . Employability has been defined as knowledge, skills and attitudes that graduates should be able to demonstrate from Higher Education. In the past people were sure to think success would come from a qualification in Higher Education. These days graduates are accepting job roles at a lower level or occupations with no relevance to their qualification. It has been said that if you have a combination of skills, such as core/hard and soft/transferable, you will have a positional advantage over other graduates. In the past years research was focused on the technical/ hard skills even though employability focuses on soft/transferable skills. There is an argument that soft skills are now more important than graduates qualifications when it comes to employability. (Chiara Succi and Magali Conouvi) Task 2 – SWOT Strengths Considerate, Kind, Patient, Empathetic Threats Finances, Environment, Task 3- Academic Skills Work shop Weaknesses Loss of concentration, Lack of boundaries, Trusting,Sympathetic Opportunities High Income, Career, structure Workshop Approaching assignments Introduction to the library Fundamentals of writing Active listening Date Booked July 17 July 18 July 18 July 18 Task 4 – Case Study Burnout A burnout occurs when work environments are not ran professionally and are poorly managed. In these circumstances workers can be become exhausted and become psychologically affected. Burnout is now one of the most important psychological occupational hazards today in society. It was before seen to be specific to carer professionals but now due to evidence is considered among different organisations. Burnout has enormously impacted the work lives and personal lives in a negative way. A study suggests that a high percentage of US general surgery residents were acknowledged to having weekly symptoms. Burnout is now addressed for legal reasons and complied with , with the European Union Framework Directive and Health and Safety. Burnout is a response, that can develop due to work stress situations. It causes damage mentally and emotionally which can cause negative reactions towards staff members, service users and to their job role. According to Freudenburger ‘a burnout is described as exhaustion, fatigue and frustration due to professional activity that fails to produce the expected expectations’. This was related to volunteers in care work looking after people with mental health issues who lead to loss of motivation, exhaustion and aggressiveness towards service users. There are three dimensions to burnout which are emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal achievement. Emotional exhaustion is a manifestation of feelings of exhaustion by psychological efforts being made at work causing weakness, tiredness and ware out. This leads on to lack of energy needed to cope with work tasks. Depersonalisation is a burnout response which causes a worker to detach and lack concern towards the work being performed. It can cause the worker to become irritated and not give in interpersonal service to the service users. Reduced personal achievement cause a professional to evaluate themselves negatively about their ability and effectiveness to perform their job and demoralise. Also a decrease in coping skills can occur which affects productivity. The burnout will impact on the caters of Mr Ahmed as it will cause them to stress as he has complained about his careers. This can be demoralising them causing them to doubt their ability for their job. The complaints to their manager could cause a negative impact on them as their manager could now out further strain on them causing them to feel overloaded with more work. The manager could be short staffed so not able to replace the carpets with any other workers. Mr Ahmed’s level of dependency is rising which is going to require more carers or more hours from existing care workers. Me Ahmed is refusing care which will cause mental and emotional strain on his family members and care workers. The stress levels can cause communication barriers between Mr Ahmed, his family members, carers and management as miscommunication can cause frustration and anger. Frustration could cause more complaints about the carers and this could lead to the carers becoming detached from their role and give an interpersonal service. This could lead to further complaints from Mr Ahmed and his family members. Emotional Intelligence According to a study emotional intelligence reduces stress and increases communication skills. Emotional intelligence is a skill that gives you the ability to understand other people’s emotions and behaviour caused by by their emotions and having the ability to handle your own.it involves emotionally driven, positive and negative behaviour awareness. Emotional intelligence was first popularised by Daniel Goleman his first book in 1995. According to Daniel Goleman there are four domains to emotional intelligence which are self awareness, relationship management, social awareness and self management. There are also five elements which are self awareness, self self regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. Self awareness is the ability to focus on your self and your actions or wether your emotions align with your internal standards. Relationship management refers to a process of managing and optimising interactions with others. Social awareness is the ability to emphasise with others and understand different backgrounds and cultures. Self management is the ability to take responsibility for themselves and their behaviour. Self regulation is the ability to monitor and manage their own energy, states, emotions, thoughts and behaviours in ways that are acceptable and produce positive results such as well being , loving relationships and learning. Motivation is an internal process defined as a drive or need or desire to change either their self or environment. Empathy is the capacity to understand of feel what the person is experiencing within their frame of reference. It is an ability to put their self in someone else’s shoes. Social skills is the ability to interact and communicate with others where social rules are involved. Lack of social skills can cause social awkwardness. Emotional intelligence could help reduce the affects of burnout as it involves having the ability to put their selves in somebody else’s shoes so would reduce stress towards staff members if they were not delivering care to correct standards, instead correct actions could be taken. In the case of staff members they would not feel demoralised with emotional intelligence as they would would understand the burnout affects that are being impacted on their manager. Emotional intelligence could reduce burnout affects towards Mr Ahmed’s carers as he would have the ability to communicate on a better level with his cares rather complain about them. His family member would be more understanding that his dependency levels are increasing which is demanding for his carers and would decrease the complaints which will be causing stress on the the carers. The management would include more carers on the plan to take some strain from the carers as they would understand there would be an emotional and mental strain on them which can affect their performance. My Ahmed would stop refusing care which will decrease strain on management as this puts them in a complex situation. It will cause strain around decisions on the care plan wether carers need to be changed or wether to give carers more work, it could be the case that they do not have more staff members to put on the care plan which causes more stress for the managers to find more staff or have existing staff put in more hours. Strategies to reduce stress Meditation is a simple fast way to reduce stress, it can produce a tranquil, relaxed state of mind which focuses your attention and helps clear your thoughts which can enhance your physical and emotional wellbeing. According to a study, just 5 minutes of deep breathing, reflection and tension release can decrease stress levels and improve overall productivity. It can improve performance at work, it can help relationships and health. Exercise increases your wellbeing and overall health but also has anti stress benefits as it pumps endorphins around the body which makes you feel good. The endorphins can a tad a natural painkiller and help you sleep better which reduces stress. Exercising regularly, causing a form of posit e stress reduces stress which will stop your brain from feeling under threat. Exercise helps with focus and concentration as it causes blood to flow to the brain which helps cell growth. The feel good hormones help improve your mood which has a positive affect in your environment. Exercise also increases blood flow to the brain as it increases the heart rat, this will trigger a chemical in your brain which will help the brain deal with stress more effectively. Relaxation is important for stress as it helps you calm down and clear your mind, this will aid better concentration, help memory and think more positively. It reduces stress by slowing down the heart rate, reducing blood pressure and relieving tension. Relaxation also helps with anxiety when done correctly, it will reduce muscle tension, slow down breathing and calm the mind. Conclusion Emotional intelligence has a major role in reducing affects of a burnout. Emotional intelligence can be contributed by management, staff members and service users, this would have a massive positive affect in a workplace. Burnout is caused by lack of emotional intelligence which leads onto poorly managed workplaces, unhappy service users, ,complaints and a stressed environment. There are natural ways to release stress like exercising and meditation which will help positively and will improve work performance. Ref Chiara Succi+ Malagi Canouvi Crossman 2010+ Clarke 2017 Mayoclinic.org Thunderbird.org Successquarterly.com Coursera.org Daniel Goleman 1995
