Beyond the call of duty: Health and human service professionals' willingness to respond to controversial and sensitive issues.
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| Title: | Beyond the call of duty: Health and human service professionals' willingness to respond to controversial and sensitive issues. |
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| Authors: | Skinner, N.J., Addy, D., Roche, A., Shoobridge, J., Freeman, J. |
| Source: | Australian Journal of Psychology. Aug2003 Supplement, Vol. 55, p145-145. 1/4p. |
| Subjects: | Medical personnel, Professional employees, Industrial psychology |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces a new type of extra-role behaviour particularly salient for health and human services professionals: willingness to respond to sensitive or controversial social issues. Here we focus on problematic alcohol or other drug use. A large research literature within the health and medical fields has highlighted the importance of role support (availability of encouragement, guidance and advice from colleagues, supervisor and the organisation) and role legitimacy (perceived professional responsibility to respond). These constructs represent domain-specific concepts of role ambiguity and support focused on specific areas of work practice (e.g., responding to problematic drug use, suicide risk, or domestic violence). Here we present a subset of findings from a national survey of nurses (N = 196) and mental health professionals (N = 115) demonstrating the importance of both organisational (i.e., role support) and individual factors (i.e., self-efficacy) in facilitating these unique types of extra-role responses in health and human service professionals, and also satisfaction with performing these behaviours. We also found evidence that support gained from the organisation, rather than supervisors or colleagues, is particularly influential for nurses. Our findings highlight the usefulness of domain-specific measures of ambiguity and support in facilitating our understanding of the unique demands and stressors that characterise a particular occupational group or workplace. This is of particular importance in the context of health and human services professionals whose work related responsibilities and demands differ significantly from other occupations more commonly studied in organisational psychology such as manufacturing, engineering, and business professions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
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