Many intensive care nurses consider quitting
In Belgium, intensive care nurses are highly dissatisfied with their work. Almost half of the personnel indicate that they want to quit. This is shown in a new report by the Health Care Knowledge Centre.
Especially the ongoing corona pandemic has taken a heavy toll. Of the 2,300 intensive care nurses who completed the survey between December 2021 and February 2022, 39 percent are not satisfied with their jobs. Another 44 percent are considering leaving the sector. Moreover, the report shows that one in five nurses is at significantly increased risk of burnout.
Dissatisfaction with work differs per region, with Wallonia and Brussels scoring worse than Flanders. But job satisfaction also depends on the work culture that prevails in the hospital. If the atmosphere is bad, the risk of burn-out is two and a half times higher.
"So, it appears to be very important what nurses think of the leadership style of the department heads, their relationship with the doctors and the appreciation they receive for their work," researcher Koen Van den Heede of the Health Care Knowledge Centre told De Morgen.
According to Van den Heede, the dissatisfaction in the sector is not new. "Many of the problems were there before the pandemic," he says. "But on all those levels it has worsened."
The pandemic caused more people to end up in intensive care. Legally, there is a maximum of three patients per nurse, a limit that was exceeded several times during the corona pandemic. The Knowledge Centre advocates respecting the ratio.
Despite all the problems, the federal government did invest 1 billion euros in health personnel during the corona pandemic. That investment resulted in 4,500 additional recruits in 2021. Moreover, the government made an extra effort to make care training more attractive.
"Unfortunately, the impact remains limited," Margot Cloet of umbrella organisation Zorgnet-Icuro said. "For every four vacancies you find only one available candidate. Moreover, the loss of personnel is still 10 per cent, whereas before corona it was only 4 per cent."
According to the organisation, the problem lies mainly in the amount of time nurses spend on tasks such as cleaning or administration. "No longer of this time."
(AHU)
© BELGA PHOTO Benoit Doppagne