ABSTRACT
By considering stress as an appraised imbalance of demands over resources (Cox, 1978; Lazarus and Folkman, 1984), the transactional model generates diverse perspectives on coping strategies. In the most general sense, coping involves reducing demand, increasing resources or some combination of the two. While strategies that enhance resources may encompass the acquisition of material resources, they may primarily involve increasing skills or gaining confidence in existing abilities. Bandura (1977) emphasized this latter aspect of coping with regard to the concept of self-efficacy: people who are confident of their capacity to apply effective coping responses are less likely to experience stress when encountering demands. Skill enhancement is an aspect of resource development which promotes self-efficacy in the process of executing occupational tasks. Skills are held by individual employees, who determine their application to occupational demands, to the extent that professional autonomy is exercised. Professional skills empower human service professionals as experts (French and Raven, 1960); to the extent that their employers value these skills, they recognize employees' individual autonomy regarding their use. Within health service institutions, the enhancement of professional skills is one of the most fundamental coping responses within the occupational domain.
