A new U.S. report indicates that nurses struggle with thoughts that are suicidal more often than people employed in other fields. In addition, the study reports that, like other healthcare workers, nurses are less likely to disclose or admit that they are having mental health issues.

How researchers conducted the study 

The research gathered about 70,000 nurses and asked them questions on their mental health. The survey began in 2017 and collected most of its data in 2018. During the survey, more than 400 nurses from the healthcare sector admitted that they had fallen victims to suicidal thoughts in the previous years. The study authors found this a percent higher than the recorded number of people in other professions, approximated to be 4.3%.

The study reports that nurses are not likely to get professional aid or assistance for experiencing such feelings or thoughts due to their jobs. However, a few other surveys have also indicated that at least 40% of the burnout cases in nurses share related signs and symptoms that spell out depression.

With the majority of the population depending on healthcare workers during the pandemic, the study authors reiterated that healthcare officials should curb this uprising trend before it worsens.

The pandemic made life harder for nurses 

The study’s authors highlighted that the global pandemic made workers’ lives in the healthcare field harder than they had ever been before.

Dr. Liselotte Dyrbe, an internist at Mayo Clinic and the senior study author of the survey, recently issued a press release. Dr. Dyrbe stated that the study authors were well aware of the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on the matter.

She also added that there should be a system-level need for intervention that will aid in the desire to improve the nurses’ work lives.  The pandemic makes members of the healthcare team more delicate than they were before, being that the researchers collected the data in 2018. The study, which researchers conducted before the pandemic, focuses on protecting the healthcare workers’ state of mind.

Other studies have shown that suicide rates among female nurses are even worse as they are twice more likely to die from suicide than other women.