This petition seems to have struck a nerve amongst specialist nurses across disease areas and geography. I have been contacted by specialist nurses working in many different disease areas outside neurology, and have already spoken with some. It seems the problem is universal.

In an article put together by a few neurologist specialist nurses for international nurses day, one nurse describes what is happening as a “moral injury”.

”Moral injury refers to the psychological, social and spiritual impact of events involving betrayal or transgression of one's own deeply held moral beliefs and values occurring in high stakes situations. Moral injury is not a recognised mental health disorder in itself, but may be associated with PTSD or depression”

Moral injury is when someone feels they have violated their conscience or moral compass when they take part in, witness or fail to prevent an act that disobeys their own moral values or personal principles.“

Specialist nurses need to be heard, so many have left or retired, so many describe burnout, compassion fatigue, and moral injury. This alongside downgrading of roles, loss of nursing posts, increase in caseload and constant additions to our job description, because so much of what we do remains unseen it is not recognised and acknowledged.

To make this visible we need all specialist nurse organisations to mobilise their workforces to sign the petition and explain why this needs to change, we need to ask the people we look after why they value our role, then we can take this to our governing bodies with a unified approach

https://neurologyacademy.org/articles/international-nurses-day-2024

Please read this article and share this petition.

Thank you

Ruth