A majority of nurses, 56%, say they’re sacrificing their mental health for their job, according to data released by nurse staffing platform IntelyCare. It also found 41% are considering leaving the profession for good.
It also found that 37% of nurses do not feel supported in their mental health at work and 41% feel they lack overall support from the system’s senior management. And while 72% of nurses have access to some form of mental healthcare through their employer, just 10% of nurses with such access use it.
Nurses have been working longer hours amid the pandemic and face increasing shortages of staff along with the inherent risk of treating Covid-19 infections.
“Our nurses are not experiencing fatigue or burnout, they are experiencing significant moral injury and critical distress to their emotional foundation,” said Rebecca Love, IntelyCare’s chief clinical officer, who is also a nurse and advocate for nurses. “We know that most of what is being offered to the frontlines in terms of whole-person support does not address the moral injury that nurses are experiencing.”
Other findings in the survey:
- 61% have had been told by a family member or friend that they work too much
- 44% miss important family milestones to be a nurse
- 68% have missed social events for work in the last month
The survey included responses from more than 500 nurses and took place in the fourth quarter of last year.
