A nurse "spends a fair bit of time shedding tears" when she hears of colleagues "desperate to feed to their kids" as mental health and cost of living crisis collide.
Carmel O'Boyle, a frontline NHS nurse in Liverpool, said "the burnout is happening now" as nurses across the country work with a shortage of nearly 40,000 while faced with the stress of working through the pandemic, mounting waiting lists, and a rising cost of living. A survey by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) states only a quarter of shifts had the planned number of registered nurses on shift, with three quarters of respondents in the North West of England saying they had a shortfall of one or more registered nurses on shift, a situation the RCN described at "critical". Carmel said "patients are suffering" as a result.
The 41-year-old told the ECHO about the "heartbreaking" stories she hears in her role as chair of the Royal College of Nurses' (RCN) North West board, as nurses struggle through the accumulating pressures. Carmel, who lives in Kensington, said one nurse had to siphon fuel from her husband's car so she could get to work and was found by a priest "distressed" and "sobbing" after her cards got declined in a supermarket, leaving her with no food for her kids.
