Dealing with the Demands: Strategies Healthcare Communication Professionals Use to Cope with Workplace Stress

Abstract

This study examines how healthcare communication professionals (HCPs) cope with workplace stress while working in an inherently stressful industry. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 HCPs (14 females, 3 males) from seven nonprofit and for-profit hospitals in the midwestern and eastern regions of the United States. Communication positions held by participants included marketing, media/community relations, public information, public relations, corporate communication, and social media. Interviews revealed HCPs use four strategies to cope with workplace stress: prioritizing, seeking colleague support, keeping perspective, and being active. HCPs primarily relied on employee-centered coping strategies, even though all sources of stress were organizationally-based (i.e., workload, lack of resources, client confidentiality). The majority of HCPs emphasized the benefits of using problem-centered (i.e., prioritizing) and emotion-centered (i.e., seeking colleague support) coping strategies. Although mentioned less often, HCPs utilized more avoidance-centered coping strategies (i.e., keeping perspective, being active). More importantly, they highlighted the benefits of using avoidance-centered strategies to help them mentally and physically disengage from workplace stress. Hospital administration should reassess if, and how, they help HCPs effectively cope with workplace stress (i.e., outlets, programs, professional development opportunities) in order to improve the well-being of HCPs and increase the likelihood of organizational success.