ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to investigate stress and its management
among teachers of schools of Health Technology in Enugu State. The study
employed the use of a descriptive survey design. Three research questions and
three mull hypotheses were generated to guide the study. The population of the
study comprised 15th respondents (93 males and 61 females) the
researcher chose not to sample as the population is within a manageable limit.
The researcher formulated questionnaire titled, Teachers Stress Index Questionnaire
(TSIQ) causes of Teachers Stress Questionnaire strategy Questionnaire. The
instruments TSIQ, CTSQ and TSMSQ were given to experts who validated the items
to ensure face validity the instruments were trial-tested to determine the
internal consistencies using Cronbach Alpha statistic (mean, standard deviation
and t- test) at 0.05 level of significance. Specifically, all research
questions were answered using mean and standard deviation. Hypotheses were also
tested using paired sample t-test. The study revealed that teachers of schools
of Health Technology in Enugu state experienced stress to a high extent, that
the cause of stress enumerated in the work are perceived by the teachers as
irritable and that the stress management adopted by the teachers were very
adequate and comfortable enough to suit their stress evoking situation. The
study also revealed gender plays a significant role in the stress management of
the teachers while experience and qualification shows no significance
differences. Based on the findings the of the study, it was recommended that
government should as a matter of priority vote more money into the education
sector of the country especially as it affects health care education, employ
stress managers, sponsor workshops and seminars. Managers should be put in
place stress management strategies with effective organizational climate.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Modern living has brought with it not only innumerable means of comfort,
but also an excessive amount of demands that stress human body and mind. This
stress phenomenon cuts across all socio-economic groups of the nation. It
affects the highly placed executives, labourers, slum dwellers, teaching professionals
and even children. A wise leader or resource manager will, therefore, develop
the ability to embark on policies and programmes aimed at managing the
day-to-day stress of individuals working in his/her organization.
Stress has been variously defined by experts. Selye in Onah (2003)
defines stress as the non-specific response of the body to any demand placed
upon it. The author further opined that stress is any external event or
internal drive which threatens to upset the organism's equilibrium. Hornby
(2003), further conceptualized stress as a pressure condition, causing
hardship, tension and disquiet which occurs as a result of problems in one’s
life. Oboegbulem (2004) defined stress as the way human beings respond to
conditions that scare, threaten, anger, bewilder or excite them. According to
the author, the above stress conditions may be regarded as emotions which
distinguish people from machines. The author opined that when these persist,
there is a tendency for occurrence of fatigue, breakdown in human perceptual
mechanisms or damage to body system, and in the long run result to mental and
physical failure. Consequently stress needs to be managed for one (especially a
teacher), to operate normally.
Management, according to Mgbodile (2007), is the process of combining and
utilizing, or allocating organizational input (man, material and money) by
planning, organizing, directing and controlling for the purpose of producing
output (goods and services) desired by customers so that the organizational
objectives are accomplished. Carlson (2002), reports that management is the
consensus of recognized authorities, all persons in any organization who are
officially vested with authority and accountability for directing those who get
work done. From the above definitions, it could be inferred that management is
characteristically demonstrated in getting things done (including teacher
stress management) through and with people.
Teacher-stress in an occupational setting as perceived by Kyriacou (2008)
means a condition where in-job-related factors interact with teachers’
mentality to change their psychological and physiological state such that the
person’s mind and body are forced to deviate from normal functioning. Thus,
teachers’ stress describe physical, mental and emotional wear and tear brought
about by incongruence between the requirements of the job and the capabilities,
resources and need of the teachers to cope with their job demands (Akinboye,
Akinboye and Adeyemo, 2002). Similarly, Kyriacou and Sutcliffe (2002) opined
that teacher stress means a response by a teacher of negative affect, such as
anger and anxiety accompanied by potentially pathogenic physiological changes,
such as increased heart rate as a result of the demand made upon the teacher in
his role as a teacher. Teacher-stress has been conceptualized by Nayak (2008)
as one of the greatest challenges facing school management. The author opined
that each person has a unique set of things that trigger off stress in him or
her. Thus, a school manager must, therefore, know his subordinates
as individuals in order to understand their stress symptoms, causes and the
management strategies to be adopted by them.
Stress management is defined as measures taken to cope with trying
periods, so that a state of psychological and physiological equilibrium is
re-established and subsequently maintained (Cooper, 2000). Oboegbulem (2004)
defined stress management as a coping action, behaviour or attitudes, which an
individual exhibits when faced with certain psychological, physiological and
social demands that task his adaptive resources. For the purpose of this study,
teachers’ stress management could be defined as a process of planning and
adjustment embarked upon by an individual teacher when faced with
environmental, psychological, physiological and social challenges that task his
peaceful existence so that homeostasis (internal harmony) is re-established and
maintained.
A teacher is a person who provides education for students. According to
Nwankwo (2004) a teacher is one who achieves the goals of teaching and learning
he sets or that is set by other organizations such as Ministry of Education,
legislators, and other government officials, schools or college administrators.
A teacher can be conceptualized as a dynamic force of the school. A school
without a teacher could be likened to a body without a soul, a skeleton without
flesh and blood, a shadow without substance. There is no greater need for the
cause of education today than the need for strong manly men and motherly women
as teachers for the young. As social engineers, the teachers can socialize and
humanize the young by their man-like qualities in a school, be it in a
university or school of health technology as is the case in this study
(Kyriacou, 2008).
The specific functions of teachers in Schools of Health Technology
include among other things, planning and presentation of instructions in such a
way that their students will understand and make meaning out of the
instructions. The teachers in schools of health technology in carrying out the
above functions are bound to be stressed up as occasioned by their inability to
live up to expectation in their work as a result of stress-induced morbidity.
These stress-induced illnesses like high blood pressure, cardiovascular
accident, peptic ulcer, and insomnia, fluctuation of mood, aggression,
headache, muscle pain, depression, anxiety and migraine are rife in the
schools. In order to curtail this unhealthy state of affairs in these Schools
of Health Technology, an investigation in the area of teachers stress
management becomes pertinent.
A School of Health Technology as perceived by World Health Organization
(WHO, 2006) is a school that offers training in the fields of health care
delivery that uses a combination of coursework and practical training to
prepare students for careers in the health care industry. According to WHO
(2006) specification, a standard School of Health Technology should have six
(6) departments. They shall include Public Health Nursing, Environmental
Health, Community Health, Pharmacy, Health Information Management and Dental
Health departments.
There are many signs and symptoms that are indicative that teachers in
Schools of Health Technology are stressed. Physically they sometimes complain
of headaches, chest pain, and shortness of breath, pounding heart, high blood
pressure, muscle aches, indigestion, fatigue, insomnia and frequent illness.
Psychosocially they are anxious, irritable, hypersensitive, and apathetic with
occasional mood swing. Most times they....
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