This study summarizes and compares the findings of 5 studies completed between 1984 and 1994 that dealt with the factors that cause stress for 4 groups of helping professionals: regular classroom teachers, special education teachers, nurses in a tertiary care hospital, and social workers in child welfare. Time and its effective management proved to be the most signiflcant stressor category for all groups.
Possible explanations for the persistence of time management concerns in these helping professions, and possible implications for employment counselors, both as helpers and information providers to those who seek to enter such professions, are proposed.
Whenever people in the helping professions meet at conferences, training seminars, retreats, or interdisciplinary sessions, the topic of "time" seems to come under discussion. There is not enough time to accomplish what is expected, not enough time to follow up earlier contacts, not enough time to keep up on one's professional reading. Time seems to be wasted or poorly managed.
But just how pervasive is this problem of time management in the helping professions? Can we demonstrate the problem in a more empirical manner? Are there demonstrable differences between helping professions? What are the implications for employment counselors in their role as providers of information and as counselors to clients considering such professions?
We have been involved with several research studies on stress and stress management in three helping professions in Newfoundland and Labrador-namely, teaching, nursing and social work. In these studies, the Wilson Stress Profile (Wilson, 1979) or a modified version was used as the primary research instrument.
Rank Hawkins is a professor at the School of Social Work, Memorial University of Newfoundland-St. John's. Lee Klas is a professor in the Department of Education at the Uniuersity of Victoria, British Columbia.