Perceived job demands: a qualitative study of workplace stress in the Iranian healthcare workers (HCWs)

OBJECTIVES: Work-related stress is a common risk factor among healthcare workers (HCWs). In Iran, the healthcare system has undergone extensive changes to develop services. Organisational change has led to the creation of new working conditions for HCWs. The purpose of this study is to identify job demands that health workers perceive as stressors. DESIGN: As a qualitative study, semistructured interviews, a focus group, and related data were analysed both inductively and deductively with reference to the job demand component based on the job demands–resources model and MAXQDA. SETTING: This investigation was conducted in 18 primary healthcare centres in Qazvin, Iran. PARTICIPANT: Twenty-one female HCWs with at least 6 months of work experience and an average age of 34.4 years. RESULTS: The participants identified six key elements as the stressful job demands including organisation’s supervisory function, role characteristics, workload, job insecurity, client service challenges and perceived job content. CONCLUSIONS: After organisational changes and development, HCWs were faced with role changes and increased workload. In addition, organisational supervision in terms of quantity and quality and lack of job security intensified the pressures. These factors led to the high level of stress among employees who dealt with people and those who perceived their job content as unfavourable. Perhaps teaching stress control skills and organisational support interventions can be useful to reduce and control stress among HCWs.