NursingNotes
  • login
  • signup
  • Latest News
  • Clinical Updates
  • Professional
  • Education
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
NursingNotes
No Result
View All Result

Home > News > Workforce

Burnout among nurses hits ’emergency’ levels with staff facing ‘excessive workloads’, warn MPs


8 June 2021
Nurse sat on floor next to hosptial bed.

Shutterstock

The report admits that poor pay could also contribute to stress and burnout in health and care.

Burnout amongst nurses and other allied healthcare professionals has reached “emergency” levels and many staff are being forced to work under chronically “excessive workloads”, according to a new report.



A new report by the Commons’ Health and Social Care Committee, chaired by former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, shines a light on the impact the pandemic has had on an already overstretched workforce.

The committee said that rota gaps forced staff to struggle with “chronic excessive workloads” which are only further exacerbated by staff leaving the NHS to escape the work pressures.

Although pay and reward were not the focus of the report, the report does admit that poor pay could also contribute to stress and burnout in health and care.

The committee said that while the pandemic had “exacerbated existing problems with staff welfare”, it had also “brought some benefits, including higher levels of recognition and different ways of working.”


The report suggests a “total overhaul” of workforce planning including a move towards a more transparent process alongside recommending changes to improve workplace culture.

Not a new problem.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) told the committee that the UK had 50,000 vacancies across the NHS and nearly a quarter of nurses were considering quitting.

RCN acting Chief Executive and General Secretary Pat Cullen said that it was not a new problem and cracks started to appear several years ago.  She said; “The unprecedented demand on nursing staff during the pandemic has had a huge impact on their own wellbeing.

“But, as this report shows, the cracks in the systems designed to look after nursing staff appeared years ago.


Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Chief Executive and Registrar Andrea Sutcliffe CBE warned that nurse’s mental health and wellbeing was “one of the top reasons given by nursing and midwifery professionals for leaving the NMC register”.

UNISON General Secretary Christina McAnea added that health and care staff are at “breaking point” and suggested that urgent reform to pay and conditions were needed.  She said; “The prime minister must act now to award a pay rise that allows the NHS to attract new people and stops the exodus of existing staff.

“A complete overhaul of wages is also vital in social care. This must include the introduction of proper sick pay.”



Popular

Patient face mask in GP

GP practices can now deregister patients for ‘unrealistic service demands’

2 June 2022

student nurse staff nurse

Student nurses ‘used and abused’ on placements

13 June 2022

RCN

Nursing staff demand immediate review of ‘not fit for purpose’ Agenda for Change pay and conditions

8 June 2022

Insight

Busy A&E waiting room

‘The NHS is having its worst winter ever – and the reasons run much deeper than COVID’

28 January 2022

Hospital curtain intensive care

‘During the Downing Street Christmas Party we were caring for dying patients and forbidden from seeing family’

8 December 2021

Vaccine inPPE

‘Making vaccination compulsory for NHS frontline workers likely to make patients suffer’

19 November 2021


Related Posts

Simon Clarke MP
News

Treasury Minister rules out inflation-busting pay rise for public sector workers

21 June 2022
Stresed nurse
Workforce

Pledge of 50,000 more nurses scuppered by ‘snowball effect’ of staff quitting

20 June 2022
District Nurse
Workforce

Experienced NHS nurses at ‘high risk’ of leaving after a decade of pay cuts, finds report

17 June 2022
NursingNotes

© 2019 NursingNotes.co.uk

Navigate Site

  • Who are we?
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Agenda for Change Pay Scales

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Latest News
  • Clinical
  • Education
  • Health Politics
  • Opinion
  • Resources

© 2019 NursingNotes.co.uk