Employer’s assistance to employees experiencing personal problems originated in the 19th century. The term Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) was however formulated in the 1970’s in the United States and, initially, only focused on alcohol dependence rehabilitation. EAPs have since seen a paradigm shift in their focus as they now deal with the full range of problems experienced by employees such as family life or relationship issues, work related stresses, financial pressures, depression or anxiety, alcohol and drug abuse. The researcher observed that some employees in the psychiatric institution, where they are employed as both professionals and non-professionals, were experiencing personal problems and very little if anything was done to provide assistance to them. It also seemed as if very few of them made use of the voluntary EAP service made available by the institution. The fact that a number of employees have problems can have serious negative consequences in that it causes a high rate of absenteeism and the institution’s core business, which is to provide care to its users, is compromised. The researcher undertook this study because EAP services fall within the realm of institutional development. This study could therefore make an invaluable contribution to the transformation discourse which has been taking place in the South African health systems in general and psychiatric institutions in particular. The purpose of this research is to determine employees’ experience of utilizing an EAP in a psychiatric hospital. The researcher is personally interested in employees’ experiences of utilizing the EAP in order to provide recommendations that will assist and strengthen the policy/guidelines for the Eastern Cape Department of Health on the use of EAPs. The workplace has an obligation to provide EAP services to employees so as to help them meet their contractual obligations in a holistic and healthy manner. The research goals are to explore the experiences of employees who have utilized an EAP. The findings will be used to make recommendations regarding the utilization of the EAP policy/guidelines that are currently used to assist the employees. The research methodology will be qualitative, descriptive, exploratory and contextual. The research population and sampling for this study will consist of the employees who have made use of an EAP. Participants will be selected using a purposive sampling approach. Data gathering will be done using semi-structured interviews, at a venue convenient to the participants. Open-ended questions will be asked to enable participants to express their perceptions on the topic. The data will be analyzed using Tesch’s method of data analysis. The identified themes will be used to describe employees’ experience of utilizing an EAP. Trustworthiness will be ensured by using Guba’s model of trustworthiness. The ethical principles of beneficence, self-determination and justice will be ensured by asking for each participant’s consent, by not coercing individuals to participate in the study and by ensuring permission from the Department of Health and from the University’s research committee to conduct the study.

Many midwives throughout the world experienced high stress levels when they deal with emergency childbirths. Midwifery professionals experience certain unique stressors, such as midwives being responsible for the care of women when they are giving birth. Complications of childbirth may occur during labour leading to the life of the baby and the mother being threatened. Situations such as this leave midwives experiencing high levels of stress for which they often do not have effective coping mechanisms. When the stress is not managed, it may lead to burnout. When burnout occurs the midwives present with physical and psychological symptoms of stress, grief for the loss and lack of motivation, which results in staff turnover and a fear of working in a maternity ward. Consequently, patient care may be compromised as some midwives became apathetic and develop unacceptable attitudes toward their patients. Such behavior led to poor work performances, maternity services that are not woman-friendly and women seeing the maternity ward as a place where they are treated in rude and unfriendly manner which increased the chances of adverse childbirth outcomes. The aim of the study was to explore and describe the experiences of midwives who have to cope with stress associated with emergency childbirths. This information was used to develop the guidelines to help midwives to cope with the high stress associated with emergency childbirths. The researcher used a phenomenological, qualitative approach. The study was explorative, as little was known on this topic in the Namibian context and it was also descriptive and contextual. Purposive and convenient sampling was used to select the research sample. The research population was all the midwives working in the maternity ward of a Namibian regional hospital, who met the inclusion criteria. Data gathering was done using semi-structured interviews. Once data saturation occurred, interviewing stopped. The interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Tesch’s eight steps of data analysis were followed to create meaning from the data collected. An independent coder assisted with the coding process to ensure the trustworthiness of the findings. Literature control was done after data collection to support and strengthen the study’s findings. Trustworthiness, as suggested by using Lincoln & Guba’s model of trustworthiness, included truth-value/credibility, applicability/transferability, consistency/dependability and neutrality/conformability was implemented. Ethical principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy and justice were ensured by obtaining permission to conduct the research from relevant authorities and from University structures, obtaining consent from the participants before the interviews, voluntary participation and right to withdraw from the study, privacy, confidentiality and dissemination of the results. Three main themes and sub-themes were identified namely: Midwives experienced significant stressors associated with emergency childbirth situations. Midwives experienced mixed emotions about dealing with emergency childbirth situations Midwives shared their views regarding their support needs associated with emergency childbirth situations. Recommendations for nursing education, clinical midwifery and for further research were made. Four guidelines were developed based on the study findings as well as literature related to these findings, to help the midwives to cope with high stress levels associated with emergency childbirths.

Nurses are confronted with numerous work-related stressors that can result in burnout. This can contribute to absenteeism and high turn-over rates in the nursing profession. A review of the literature indicated that psycho-educational interventions to increase resilience could be an effective way of addressing this problem. The study aimed to develop a positive clinical-psychology approach to increasing resilience in State employed nurses. The study used a mixed-method approach to determine the current psychological functioning of a sample of 87 nurses. Quantitative data on personality traits, character strengths and levels of resilience were obtained, using the NEO PI-R, VIA – IS, and Resilience Scale. Qualitative data on the coping responses of nurses were obtained through the thematic analysis of focus groups. These data were integrated to create a positive clinical psychology conceptualisation of resilience and to develop therapeutic guidelines for a group psycho-educational intervention. The results of the study indicated a struggling psychological profile. This was defined as the ability to deal with work-related stressors – but with the potential risk of developing symptoms of burnout. The moderate levels of resilience were attributed to elevated character strengths in the sample. The distribution of personality traits indicated that the nurses in the sample were at risk of developing burnout; and this prevented them from flourishing. These data were synthesised to create therapeutic guidelines for developing resilience aimed: (1) increasing emotional stability and invulnerability; (2) increasing agreeableness; and (3) increasing conscientiousness. These guidelines were based on the personality traits that were deemed to negatively impact the resilience of the nurses. These personality traits were correlated with several character strengths that displayed strong relationships with resilience. This indicated that resilience could be developed through the cultivation of the following character strengths: perspective; perseverance; fairness; forgiveness; leadership; love; zest; hope; curiosity; and appreciation of beauty and excellence. These character strengths were identified to facilitate the positive adaptation of the personality traits identified in the therapeutic guidelines. A group psycho-educational intervention was developed, using the positive clinical psychology conceptualisation of resilience. The literature was reviewed to identify techniques to cultivate the ten character strengths specified in the therapeutic guidelines. These techniques were adapted to create experiential learning processes for the intervention. This psycho-educational programme can be applied as a secondary and tertiary intervention. It can be used to increase resilience to prevent burnout among nurses. It can also be used to psychologically empower nurses that have existing symptoms of burnout.

A person’s career takes up a large portion of his or her life for a minimum of 8 hours per day. A large portion of their time is spent performing their duties which are often accompanied by various demands or pressure that can result in an employee experiencing stress. Over time this build-up of stress due to job demands affects their ability to perform at work. This study aimed to identify, explore and describe the factors that facilitate the resilience of healthcare professionals working at a Campus Health Service at a Higher Education Institution. An exploratory descriptive study consisting of a qualitative nature was employed. Data was obtained from semi-structured interviews. The questions that were posed to participants read as follows: (1) “Tell me about the demands placed on you in your current work situation”, (2) “How do you cope with the demands placed on you?”, (3) “What can be done to assist you to cope better at work?”, and lastly (4) “Any additional questions/comments?”. The fourth question was added by the researcher in order for participants to have the opportunity to add to what they have said previously. Data was gathered until data saturation was reached. Tesch’s model of content analysis as well as Guba’s model of trustworthiness was employed, in order to analyse the data. An independent coder was subsequently employed to ensure the trustworthiness of the data. The findings revealed that all participants found workplace demands to be stressful, in terms of physical, emotional and time-related demands placed on them. Participants identified strategies that could help them cope with their demands such as open air activities, debriefing with colleagues or making use of a wellness line, maintaining a positive attitude, support from management and colleagues, the ability to practice initiative and autonomous decision-making, and lastly, religious practices. In addition, participants made recommendations on how employers can help relieve their stress. The recommendations included developing an in-house wellness programme, providing sufficient staff of the correct categories, providing adequate facilities and equipment to improve efficiency, providing developmental opportunities, scheduling training programmes for less busy times of the year, and lastly, introducing elements of structured flexi-time for employees.

There are various ways in which work can be harmful to our health. Accidents and violence on the job and exposure to noxious chemicals in factories and sealed office buildings account for substantial numbers of injuries and deaths every year. Another danger, stress affects millions of employees and costs companies millions of cash every year, but it operates in more silent and subtle way. Stress is a psychological agent that affects the health of workers, productivity, and morale worldwide. Some of the causes of stress in the workplace include work over and underload, personal and family problems, organizational design and relationships in the organization. Stress-related diseases are widespread among employees throughout the world. A national survey was conducted in the United states by a life insurance company found that nearly half of all employed adults considered their jobs to be extremely stressful. Furthermore, a major share of physical complaints may be psychosomatic, that is, actual physical disorders caused by or related to emotional factors such as stress on the job. Physical problems associated with stress include high blood pressure, ulcers, heart disease, lower back pain and cancer. Stress in the workplace is very costly to employers in terms of lower productivity, reduced motivation, and increased errors and accidents. Moderate stress is encouraged as it can help employees in achieving the goals by being productive but too much or high stress level is related to increases in turnover and counterproductive behavior, such as theft and drug and alcohol abuse.

This thesis explores the relationship between work environment and burnout by examining the question: Do workers experiencing burnout see their work environment more negatively than co-workers who are not burned-out? The goal is to explore the potential usefulness of measures of work environment and burnout to guide efforts at burnout intervention and prevention. Thirty-nine family and childcare workers from five sites in the Vancouver area responded to a survey to test hypotheses addressing this question. The work environment and burnout were found to be highly interactive with the work environment variables of supervisor support and clarity identified as key factors in burnout. The Maslach Burnout Inventory and Moos (1981) Work Environment Scale were found to be useful instruments for intervention and future research. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

M.A. (Psychology) / The purpose of the· analysis was to translate the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) into Afrikaans and to evaluate the metrical qualities of the translated and adjusted questionnaire, as well as to establish the difference between ministers with high and low burn-out, with regard to specific personality traits, anxiety, selfactualization and demographical and workrelated variables. The research design was of an ex post facto nature. The test sample consisted of 82 ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church of the Ring of Western Transvaal. They were randomly selected. The MBI was used to determine burn-out, the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16-PF) to measure the primary personality traits, the IPAT Anxiety Scale to measure free floating manifested anxiety and the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) for the measurement of selfactualization. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain information about the demographical, workrelated and other variables of the experimental subjects. To determine the reliability of the inventory, Kuder Richardson coefficients were computed for the various subscales of the adjusted MEl. Determination of validity involved the calculation of Bravais-Pearson correlation coefficients between the various subscales in relation to each other and between other criterion measurements. to determine burn-out vary The U-test of Mann-Whitney was conducted whether persons with low and high with regard to specific personality

M.Cur. (Nursing Management) / The largest and most expensive asset of any health care institution is its human resources. Mol [1984 : 1J quite correctly says that no organization can reach its full potential when these resources are not utilized effectively. The researcher has noticed certain behavior patterns amongst the nursing staff in intensive care units. These behaviour patterns include an increase in staff turnover and absenteeism. The question that arose was whether it could be ascribed to professional burnout and whether nursing managers could be contributing to the cause thereof. Th. burnout syndrome is a slowly developing psychologically destructive process, which is in relation to the effect the work environment· has on the individual. The consequences of professional burnout has many negative effects on the nurse, ·the patient, the profession and the health care delivery system. The concept of professional burnout is described with reference from the literature and by means·of a survey the following was determined, that:- all nurses working in intensive care units in the hospital were the research was conducted, had experienced symptoms of professional burnout; the majority of these nurses perceive their work situation as severely stressful; and - nursing managers are overwhelmingly applying the autocratic leadership style. Some of the important conclusions culminating from this study are that:- all these nurses experience one or other degree of professional burnout as a result of experiences resulting from unresolved stress in the work environment; and the nursing manager possibly uses ineffective management strategies due to a lack of management training, thus contributing to professional burnout.

M.A. / Believing in misfortune is sometimes considered regarded as barbaric and superstitious. Regardless of how these practices are perceived, people strongly believe in the existence of misfortune and bad luck. The occurrence of misfortune is often attributed to a wide range of sources, such as ancestors, river people, pollution and witches. Together the river people, the ancestors, pollution and witchcraft provide an explanation for evil and misfortune. Misfortune can therefore arise from one, or a combination of these four, or additionally from natural, and/or non-natural means. Misfortune is not only an interesting concept but also problematic to those who believe in it. Misfortune can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. In other words it becomes real in their lives and it directly influences them. Preventive strategies for evil and misfortune are as different as the causes. The kinds of experiences of misfortune that are taken as data are bodily conditions, failures and losses. A qualitative study was conducted at Harmony Gold’s Doornkop Shaft near Soweto and Sir Albert Medical Centre a nearby situated medical facility for specifically mine related injuries and health issues in Randfontein, to determine how mineworkers perceive and experience misfortune and if they do, how they explain it and deal with it? The target population was underground mineworkers because according to Xhosa custom (isithethe) one is prohibited from working underground because it is a sacred place of the dead. Whenever therefore they go down, that symbolises death and in some cases they would be regarded as people who are shaking the bones of ancestors. Working underground therefore makes one prone to accidents, illness and misfortune. The project also examines the rituals of migrants which serve as a form of preventing misfortune and ensuring good health. It is argued that working underground is a violent experience. The miners struggle with the environment, heat, falling of rocks, unnatural conditions and bad air. However, this project points out the importance of solidarity among underground workers more especially during accidents where they become a source of inspiration to one another and rescue each other before the emergency services reach them. / Prof. Anton Senekal

This thesis examined factors related to employee (particularly new employee) stress. In particular it looked at stress caused by role ambiguity. It looked at the moderating effect of tolerance for ambiguity on the relationship between role ambiguity and stress. It also examined the indirect effect of feedback seeking behavior to gain desired role clarity as an intervening variable on stress level.