10 September 2021
Fatigue and burnout levels among South Australia’s nurses and midwives are higher than they have ever been, a new survey reveals.
A staggering 68.2% of nurses and midwives reported working unpaid overtime, with 25% working double shifts. The WCH had the greatest proportion of nurses/midwives working double shifts (34.3%), an obvious danger to the young patients in their care.
Alarmingly, just over half of the respondents had intentions to leave sometime within the next five years (56.1%).
A total of 3,141 people opened the six-week survey conducted in May and June this year on behalf of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (SA Branch). After data cleansing 2,843 respondents were included in the final analyses.
Depersonalisation was, alarmingly, trending in worsening direction and was highest among those who had worked double shifts; were under 30 years; had 1-10 years’ professional experience and most concerningly, were planning to exit their role within the next 12 months.
Overall, this pattern of data suggests we are facing a generational loss of younger nurses because of the pressure placed on them by the system to work in such demanding and fatiguing environments.
Please view the survey here