MADRID – Almost 50% of Spanish nurses considered giving up nursing work during the pandemic. This is according to a survey conducted by the Spanish nurses’ union SATSE.
11,645 were interviewed from the profession, regarding the serious consequences the pandemic has had on both their professional and private lives.
Another frequently mentioned aspect is the lack of support they experienced from their superiors. 63.8% of respondents did not feel supported by their manager at the workplace in dealing with the health crisis.
Consequences of corona situations
27.1% of respondents said they had ever felt social rejection for caring for patients with Covid-19. Meanwhile 16.24% said they had needed specialised psychological help to cope with the difficult situations. 10.6% had taken sick leave due to work-related depression symptoms.
Tsunami for Spanish nurses
Nurses are health workers who come into permanent contact with pain, suffering and death. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented tsunami on a professional and personal level. And as such, has logically taken a heavy toll. The final extent of which is not yet known, the union stresses.
Fear of contamination
Fear of consequences by caring for people with coronavirus could have for their own health (87.2%) and that of the people around them (96.3%) also played a major role among those surveyed.
Rising stress levels
Finally, 89.3% of nurses believe that their stress levels have increased as a result of caring for people affected by Covid-19. And almost 86% say they have experienced marked emotional exhaustion for the same reason.
Appeal to governments on behalf of Spanish nurses and caregivers
The union believes that ‘there is an urgent need to address the difficult working conditions that nurses and caregivers suffer daily, which have also been worsened by the pandemic this year’. SATSE calls on the government and the different autonomous communities to use all the structural measures and resources necessary to put an end to this deplorable situation.
