Moral distress is directly linked to burnout across all roles within our health and social care system. Burnout is now acknowledged in the ICD 11 which is what is currently used to diagnose mental illness. The world health organisation also acknowledges this "work place phenomenon". Burnout has serious consequences on the mental health and wellbeing of NHS and social care staff. Recovery from burnout is more than just a few days off, more than just having some annual leave and takes more than just a rant to your nearest and dearest. There are deep-rooted systematic inadequacies that continue to contribute to the moral distress of our staff every single day. Unless these inadequacies are called into question and addressed then unfortunately what we will continue to witness will be:
✅1. A continued loss of staff retention and recruitment
✅2. Increased sickness rates
✅3. Increased use of agency nurses (higher cost to NHS and social care systems)
✅4. Staffing shortages negatively impacting patient safety and CQC failures
✅5. Staffing shortages negatively impacting our staff's wellbeing , mental health and physical health. We will continue to see reasonably healthy staff burn out while they try to make up for the shortage by working and doing more.
✅6. Our NHS staff feeling unable to speak up on these issues , or those who have but have grown cynical as they see no change to the work environments that are directly effecting them.
✅7. An increased risk of clinical errors or omissions due to burnout and the pressure to continue when unwell.
We will continue to spend millions and millions of pounds for the mental health and wellbeing our staff if we do not start to address the underlying issues contributing to moral distress.
Why constantly put out fires when we can all learn to prevent them in the first place!
Speaking as a nurse , I vowed to uphold the NMC code of conduct and to be an advocate and a voice for those who I care for. In order to do this I need a system that allows me to provide the very best care that I can give regardless of race, gender identity, sex, political affiliation and socio-economic status. I need a system that allows and encourages me and my colleagues to speak up and speak out when the lives of our patients are constantly put at risk. We need a system which allows us all to speak out , be heard and acknowledged when our very own lives are still being put at risk due to poor PHE guidance and work environments that are a constant threat to the health and safety of our colleagues! It's not good enough to just be heard , it has to change and we need our system to allow us to make clinical evidence based judgements within our fields of expertise to make positive Meaningful changes to ourselves and the communities we serve!
I'm accountable to the NMC and I'm questioned by the CQC. Which is right and so it should be ! But what on earth are they doing to support our health and social care system after inadequacies are identified. Our trusts can't take all the blame! Not when individual teams put forward business proposals that they know will improve their care and service to the CCGS, only for the direct opposite to happen as a result....
CUTS !
Sincerely
A tired RMN who is desperate for change ❤️
P.S. one way to tackle MORAL DISTRESS and systematic inadequacy is to join a union!
Speak to them and ask them to support you, we shouldn't be forced to learn how to tolerate less than favourable working conditions! We don't need more resilience! If you are a health or social care worker YOU ALREADY ARE
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