Over 50% of nurses who work in emergency care or urgent care are now putting the stress of work above their wellbeing. This is according to researchers. An 18-month study has tracked the data from over 10,000 emergency staff members and it is showing that there is currently a mental health crisis happening amongst those who work in a nurse agency as well as those who are coming through a nursing recruitment agency. Some of the studies have shown that one of the driving factors right now would be staffing conditions.

Findings have suggested that over half of workers felt as though they had a chronic imbalance and that they were putting their work before their wellbeing. They experienced high levels of stress and they also felt as though this was impacting their performance. The people who were behind the study have found that this was often experienced higher in nurses when compared to ER physicians and even police services. The poor work and life balance negatively impacted their physical health and it also resulted in a lower level of employee wellbeing.

Across the sector, it would seem that findings showed that frontline workers were at very high levels and that most of them were distressed by either mental images or poor memories of the experiences that they have gone through. 10% of them have stated that they have had a lot of suicidal thoughts since the pandemic started and 92% of them had expressed pride in the work that they are doing. 92% of all nurses said that they would not hesitate someone who was in need, and that this is the highest number of kindness and compassion across the entire emergency sector. It’s about time that we show nurses the same level of kindness and respect by helping them to know that they are not alone.