Data shows that nurses in England were off sick for an average of a week last year due to stress
Nurses in England were sick for an average of a week last year due to stress, anxiety or depression, NHS figures show.
The revelation has raised concerns that the intense stresses nurses face in their work, including low pay and understaffing, are damaging their mental health and leading many to quit.
Nurses and health visitors took a total of 1,675,275 sick days due to stress and similar conditions in 2023, NHS England data shows.
That means each of the 352,125 members of both professions in England missed an average of 4.95 days at work for that reason, according to an analysis of the figures by the Royal College of Nursing.
“Dangerous stress levels have become normalized within an NHS that cannot meet demand,” said Prof Pat Cullen, general secretary and CEO of RCN.
“Chronic labor shortages are putting nurses under unbearable pressure. The nursing staff…is running out of steam. Government and NHS leaders must stop normalizing poor mental health among staff.”
In total, nurses and health visitors took 6.9 million days of sick leave last year, but the 1.68 million days they missed due to stress, anxiety and depression were the biggest source of illness. They made up 24.3% of the total, compared to 21% the year before. Colds and flu were the second biggest reason for sick days last year at 12%.
“These are sobering findings,” said Prof Alison Leary, chair of healthcare and workforce modeling at London South Bank University. She highlighted that 2023 was the year nurses leaving the NHS first cited work-life balance as the reason rather than retirement, other NHS data shows.
Many nurses are experiencing “moral distress,” Leary added. “It occurs when a nurse can see what care the patient needs, but does not have the resources to provide that care.
“Nurses are generally dedicated people and come to work to do a good job, but the extreme workload means they cannot do all their work and this causes them stress,” she said.
The shortage of nurses is widespread, with 34,709 vacancies in England. A hospital nurse in the West Midlands told the RCN that the “lack of staff combined with demand for services is an ongoing concern. It causes stress and lack of sleep. I feel dejected and let down by the system.”
Another nurse said: “(I am) so stressed and worried about the lack of income and financial pressure that my mental health has deteriorated so badly that I have to take extended sick leave for the second time in two years.”
The high pressures that come with their jobs have led to many nurses and midwives resigning, especially early in their careers. One in eight nursing students drop out during their training, one in nine midwives do not enter the profession after graduating and one in five nurses leave within two years of joining the NHS, according to research conducted in was published in September by the Nuffield Trust health think tank.
An independent analysis commissioned by the RCN, published last month, shows that nurses’ wages fell by an average of almost 25% between 2010-11 and 2023-24.
The RCN has said their pay levels mean many nurses are struggling to cope with rising inflation that has hit households in recent years.
There were over 12,000 registered nurses in the UK by 2022-2023 applied for a certificate of current professional status, which will allow them to work in other countries, such as the US and Australia, where nurses’ salaries are higher. That was more than double the number who did so the year before and four times higher than in 2018-2019.
The Department of Health and Social Care said: “The latest NHS workforce survey shows an improvement in staff morale and experience. And there are now record numbers of doctors and nurses working in healthcare.
“NHS England has published a strategy to increase support for health and wellbeing at work, and the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan will retain even more staff, meaning there will be up to 190,000 extra nurses between 2036 and 2037. ”