NHS Staff Survey: nurses lift lid on working in health service
Posted 07 March 2024 - 14:28
Latest survey reveals under-staffing, burnout, time pressures, sexual harassment and dissatisfaction with pay; RCN says the findings ‘provide an urgent reality check for government’
More than 81% of NHS nurses have said they face unrealistic time pressures to carry out their jobs either sometimes, often or all of the time.
Findings from the latest NHS Staff Survey also show that just 29% of registered nurses who responded believe there are enough staff at work for them to do their job properly – a figure that drops to 24.5% among district nurse respondents.
Inadequate pay remains an issue for overwhelming majority of nurses
One in five NHS nurses (21.2%) say they are looking to leave their job in the next 12 months, with just half of respondents saying they are not considering leaving their current role.
Among other findings, 34.4% of nurses say they have experienced feelings of burnout, and 53.% say they had felt unwell due to work stress in 2023 – though both of these figures had improved by around 5% compared with last year’s survey results.
The survey, which polled all NHS staff groups in autumn 2023 on dozens of work-related questions, received 196,184 responses from registered nurses and midwives in England. This year it included bank and general practice staff for the first time.
The survey results, published today, show improvements in access to flexible working, opportunities for learning and pay satisfaction.
But while there was a substantial jump in pay satisfaction from 18.6% in 2022 to 27.7% in 2023, almost three quarters of nursing staff said they remain unsatisfied with their salary.
Urgent measures needed to improve morale and retain staff, says union
Responding to the results, RCN director for England Patricia Marquis said: ‘The findings provide an urgent reality check for government ministers and lay bare the impact of workforce shortages.
‘Nurses remain unhappy with their pay and say there isn’t enough time or staff to do their job properly. When this happens, patients suffer.
‘World-class services cannot be built on the backs of unhappy and poorly paid staff. Urgent measures to improve morale and retain staff are needed, which have to include an above-inflation pay rise this year.’
Unison’s acting deputy head of health Alan Lofthouse added: ‘With more than one in five NHS workers admitting they want to quit in the next year, the government needs to tackle wage rates right away. Staff satisfaction with pay is almost the worst it’s ever been. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out why.’
Survey reveals level of sexual harassment against NHS staff
For the first time, the survey asked NHS staff if they had experienced sexual harassment at work. The responses reveal healthcare workers experienced ‘unacceptable’ levels of unwanted sexual behaviour from the public in 2023 – with 58,000 reporting such incidents.
The results show nurses and nursing associates were one of the most targeted staff groups, with 11% reporting they experienced sexual harassment from patients, patients’ relatives or other members of the public in 2023. Among nursing assistants and healthcare assistants, the figure was 16.93%.
Sexual safety charter aims to bring improvements
NHS England chief workforce, training and education officer Navina Evans said: ‘It is very distressing that more than 58,000 NHS staff reported experiencing unwanted sexual behaviour from the public last year, and such conduct should not be tolerated in the health service.
‘That is why NHS England launched its first-ever sexual safety charter last year, which provides clear commitments to improve reporting on unacceptable behaviour, as well as appointing more than 300 domestic abuse and sexual violence leads who will review and improve trust policies for reporting of sexual harassment.’
View the survey results
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