Premature departure from the nursing profession in Europe

The Nurses Early Exit Study (NEXT) interim findings on why nurses are leaving the profession.

A seminar was hosted by the Scandinavian SALTSA group in Brussels on October 7th on why so many nurses across Europe are leaving the profession early.

The SALTSA research programme runs in collaboration with the Swedish National Institute for Working Life (NIWL) and the Swedish confederations of employees.

The speakers identified a number of reasons including:

 low pay

 problems achieving work/home balance

 anti-social working hours

 lack of influence in the workplace

 lack of psychological support

 poor working conditions etc

These tend to be generic reasons, although they all have varying degrees of impact in different countries.

For example, nurses in the UK felt they did have influence in the workplace but still displayed a high level of disatisfaction.

The NEXT study is being carried out by the University of Wuppertal (Germany) - Department of Safety Engineering, Division of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics.

NEXT will complete the next stage of their research on how to retain nursing staff, and will present their findings next year.

 For more information on the NEXT study, click here.