Do I Just Look Stressed or am I Stressed? Work-related Stress in a Sample of Italian Employees

Work-related stress is becoming a significant problem in Italy and it is therefore essential to advance the theory and methodology required to detect this phenomenon at work. Thus, the aim of this paper is to propose a new method for evaluating stress at work by measuring the discrepancies between employees’ perceptions of stress and their leaders’ evaluation of the stress of their subordinates. In addition, a positive impression scale was added to determine whether workers might give socially desirable responses in organizational diagnosis. Over 1,100 employees and 200 leaders within several Italian organizations were involved in this study. Structural equation modeling was used to test such new method for evaluating stress in a model of stress at work that incorporates relationships among individual (positive impression), interpersonal (workplace bullying) and organizational factors (working conditions, welfare culture, training). Results showed that the leaders’ capacity to understand subordinates’ stress is associated with subordinates’ psychological well-being since higher disagreement between self and leaders’ ratings was related to lower well-being. We discuss the implications of healthy leadership for the development of healthy organizations.     

Less-invasive off-pump ventricular assist device implantation in regional paravertebral analgesia

We describe the clinical course and treatment of a 58-year-old male with a primary cardiogenic shock, who underwent a minimally invasive off-pump ventricular-assist-device (VAD) implantation with the aid of paravertebral regional analgesia. He was extubated soon after the procedure, in the operating room, with the aim to reduce the right ventricle impairment. We illustrate how a minimally invasive implant may improve the clinical outcomes of VAD patients shortening their return time to active life.