A senior nurse has claimed that her team needs antidepressants just to cope with the stress of the job.
In an interview earlier this week, a specialist nurse from Leeds told LBC listeners that both herself and her team were taking antidepressants simply to cope with the stresses of the job and claimed they wouldn’t be able to do the job without them.
Liz, an oncology specialist nurse from Leeds, told LBC presenter Shelagh Fogarty; “I’m quite a senior nurse in the NHS, I am a cancer nurse specialist.
“I share an office with five other people, so six of us in total and we are all nurse specialists for various sites of cancer.
“Everyone of us are on antidepressants because of the stress of the job, the busyness, the pressure, the lack of perceived support”.
“Myself, I’ve been doing the job for 15 years and I’ve been on antidepressants since 2001 and I really couldn’t do my job without them.”
Before finally adding; “When the support isn’t there – it makes it much more stressful”.
Official statistics show that the number of antidepressants prescribed has more than doubled in the past decade with around one in 100 people taking the medication.
The 2018 NHS Staff Survey revealed that 38% of staff reported feeling unwell due to work-related stress but felt pressure from managers to remain at work.