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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