Relationship between Mental Workload and Job Stress in Healthcare Workers

Mental workload and job stress are important factors which can threaten the health and compatibility of employees in every organization and cause problems and work accidents. The aimed of this studding was effect of mental workload on job stress in healthcare workers.

This cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 158 healthcare workers from different sectors including hospital and urban/rural health centers and rural health centers in 2017. The data collection tools were NASA mental Task Load Index and HSE job stress questionnaires. Data analysis conducted via descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation coefficient, KrusKal-Wallis, and Mann-Whitney tests.

The Mean and standard deviation of Mental workload and job stress was 70.04(15.22) and 3.35(0.46), respectively. There was no significant relationship between mental workload and job stress score (r=0.131, P=0.080) There was a significant relationship between the elements of demand and connection (p<0.05). Furthermore, the workload and job stress level were not significantly different in employees of different sectors (P>0.05).

Regarding to the results of e study, implementation of some interventions in order to reduce mental workload and stress such as increasing the number of employees, proper dividing of tasks, and use some solutions like job enrichment in different parts of healthcare system in recommended.