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Unchecked Stress May Lead Healthcare Professionals to Deliver Poor Service

A new self-training guide provides a 10-step stress-management program to help clinical and non-clinical healthcare professionals manage stress and avoid burn-out.

(Boonton, NJ, Sep 30, 2009) — It's a fact of life: No job is without at least some stress. And, healthcare professionals have their fair share each day as they deal with patients who may be demanding, annoyed, not feeling well, or anxious about test results or a difficult diagnosis.

Add to that managing relationships with coworkers, doctors and other members of the healthcare team and there really is no shortage of stress.

In the self-training publication, Guide to Stress Management, author Karen Childress identifies 10 steps clinical and non-clinical healthcare professionals can take to manage those stress levels and deliver better patient service. The accompanying Leader's Guide shows managers and practice administrators how to introduce stress management concepts to their staff in a positive and motivating way. How to reinforce important points in the booklet with a group training session. Plus techniques and refreshers to continue to reinforce the message long after the booklets have been distributed.

One technique that Childress recommends to help relieve stress is to appoint a team to identify the top stressors for the department as a whole, then to develop a plan for managing them. She points to the following example, "A team of lab technicians found it frustrating and stressful when instruction forms were not filled out correctly by physicians. The technicians created a one-page instruction sheet which was sent to all participating physicians. While the problem didn't go away entirely, it got much better. And the technicians felt empowered to make more changes that would reduce stress and ultimately provide better patient service."

Guide to Stress Management is one of six self-training guides from the Customer Service Group's Healthcare Division. Additional information on each of the guides is available online at http://www.CustomerServiceGroup.com/healthcare.php.

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About the Customer Service Group

For more than 20 years, the Customer Service Group has provided training and motivational materials to customer contact professionals in all industries.

Website: http://www.CustomerServiceGroup.com