8 | Nursing in Practice | Spring 2022
We have lost members of our team and are unable to recruit We are understaffed and have been unsuccessful in recruiting ; the chronic disease burden is enormous I have had enough We are always excluded and so feel undervalued I have been in the nursing profession for over 30 years . Pressure and lack of capacity makes every day incredibly demanding and stressful I could retire this October and until the latter part of last year I hadn ’ t really given it serious thought but am considering it now . We really are just exhausted and feel that we are not appreciated by the public . It has been a real uphill struggle to keep going Tired and demoralised , underpaid and not valued I feel significantly undervalued . I have been at the same surgery for over 26 years and have supported the surgery throughout the pandemic with no recognition whatsoever I have been a nurse for more than 20 years and things seems to be getting worse for nurses . There is no respect and no appreciation . GPs gets support and respect . But not us The patients are often very rude , demanding and abusive . Job satisfaction is minimal , leading to stress overload and burnout I ’ ve had enough . I ’ m burnt out , stressed and exhausted Just feel overworked and undervalued and have reached burnout I ’ m not considering leaving but there are many days where I have felt like walking out – but then worked through it I see primary care like a ceiling , no matter how hard you work , there ’ s hardly room for making partnership as a nurse No longer the role I started 21 years ago . Unsafe environment now . Expectations are unrealistic and dangerous Time for a change I ’ m tired Fed up of poor pay , lack of decent sick pay , lack of communication and training . Don ’ t feel supported enough So exhausted I feel so very isolated
COVER FEATURE
Overwhelmed and
undervalued
We ask nurses working in general practice about workload , staffing and morale , and how they feel as they look towards the immediate future
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Pandemic-era policies ended on 24 February , as Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out plans for ‘ living with Covid ’. But practice nurses know more than anyone that the pandemic and its impacts are far from over . Now , they must face the Covid aftershocks – such as burnout among staff and a daunting backlog of care . In a survey that ran from 26 January to 16 February , we asked 393 nursing staff ( including 285 practice nurses , 65 nurse practitioners and 24 ANPs ) in general practice across the UK about their thoughts on their current and future roles . How do they feel as Covid appears to lessen its grip ?
Fewer nurses , more work Shockingly , only 33 % of respondents said they were not considering leaving their job in the next year . Of the two-thirds who said they were , the most common plan was early retirement ( 18 %), followed by moving to a different nursing role outside general practice ( 11 %), changing professions altogether ( 8 %), retiring as planned ( 6 %) and moving to a different role within general practice ( 5 %). A further 14 % said they were not sure how they would leave .
When asked to explain why they were considering leaving , many said they felt exhausted , overworked and underpaid , with several citing frustrations with their variable pay , terms and conditions compared with those of other nurses on standardised NHS Agenda for Change ( AfC ) contracts .
Nurses also reported that staff shortages – driven in part by people leaving the profession – were impacting on workload and care quality . Just 33 % said they had enough staff at their practice to do their job properly , with many blaming resignations , retirements and subsequent recruitment struggles . A director of nursing across multiple practices , based in the West Midlands , summed up the problem : ‘ We have lost members of our team and are unable to recruit .’
Workload concerns featured strongly elsewhere in the responses : the majority thought workload was high compared with earlier in the pandemic , with 48 % saying it is now higher than before , 30 % saying it is ‘ still very high ’ and 17 % saying it is ‘ still quite high ’. Just 4 % said their workload was ‘ lessening somewhat ’ and 1 % said it was ‘ lessening significantly ’.
Nurses cited a variety of tasks and activities as the main contributors to workload , many of which have been exacerbated by the pandemic . For example , several noted an increase in patient complaints . One practice nurse