British nurses stressed out, underpaid, under-valued and their sex lives suffer

May 29 2007

In a survey of nurses in the UK, it has been found that almost half of nurses feel their sex lives are damaged by the emotional stress of their job.

The survey by the magazine Nursing Times questioned almost 2,000 nurses, and found 70% said they suffered from physical or mental health problems linked to work-related stress, while some 44% said their sex life was suffering as a result; 25% said they had started drinking more as a result of pressure and one in 10 nurses were smoking more.

The magazine lays the blame for the current situation on the pressure of financial deficits and the threat of job cuts in the National Health Service (NHS).

Almost a third of the nurses polled admitted to taking more days sick than usual and more than one in five of those surveyed had taken 30 or more days off during the last year.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says the survey confirms that nurses are under pressure, and are also under valued and under paid.

The RCN says stress is a serious issue for nurses who are subjected on a daily basis to violence and abuse from patients and relatives, while trying to cope with the day-to-day pressures of having to carry out more tasks with fewer resources because of deficit-led cost cutting.

Added to that are concerns regarding job security and pay cuts and the RCN says it comes as no surprise that stress levels are affecting nurses' personal lives and relationships.

According to a RCN poll last year more than a quarter of nurses surveyed had been physically attacked at work, while nearly half had been bullied or harassed by a manager.

The RCN says such issues must be addressed for nurses to stay in the profession and in order to attract new recruits.

Experts agree that the impact of stress on NHS employees was "vastly under-estimated" and is costing the health service £300-400million a year.

The survey results have backed calls from both political parties in Britain for nurses to be awarded a full 2.5% pay increase this year; currently nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have been offered a 1.5% rise followed by another 1% in November, but nurses want the 2.5% immediately and are being balloted by the RCN on whether they want a vote on industrial action.

To date 186 MPs from all parties have committed their support for the full 2.5% pay rise for nurses.

The Royal College of Midwives have also voted unanimously to consider a ballot for industrial action for the first time in their history over the staged 2.5% pay rise.

Nurses have not in the past been permitted to take industrial action but a rule change in the mid-1990s allows measures which do not harm patient care, which means an all-out strike is unlikely but it does let nurses take other steps such as refusing to do overtime.