Caring for the Carers - Nurses' Problems

Abstract

I The occupational mortality of nurses* in terms of life expectancy compares poorly with other public service groups. The nurse’s life expectancy at age 45 is 26.9 years - only 1 year more than that of miners below ground (25.9 years). Nurses are subject to a high degree of stress. Every day the nurse confronts stark suffering, grief and death as few other people do. Many nursing tasks are mundane and unrewarding. Nursing involves the delivery of %-hour care, working with people who are themselves suffering a considerable degree of stress. Patients are often difficult, frightened and resentful, and nurses can find themselves responding with a growing sense of irritability and frustration. Such ‘unprofessional’ feelings can arouse considerable anxiety and guilt, but they are all the more powerful and potentially destructive because they are often kept secret and denied. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Working Party on Police Stress’ carried out a preliminary study of stress in the police service. Home Office departments were approached, and the Scientific Research and Development Branch Human Factors Group undertook a preliminary investigation into the nature and extent of the police stress problem. The results were reported back to the ACPO Working Party for further consideration. Stress was seen to be a problem that concerned every level and every aspect of the police organization, and that extended beyond the working environment into the domestic circumstances of individual officers. The final workshops identified four major sources of stress which may give rise to the impairment of the efficiency of the organization and its individuals. These were: management systems, management styles, management support (infra structure), and traumatic incidents. ‘Paper presented at the British Holistic Medical Association Third Annual Conference, Holistic Medicine & Health of the Carer, 19-20 October 1985, Kensington, London. Written up and edited by Stephanie Wuensche, whose help is much appreciated.