Nurses at West Dorset General Hospitals NHS Trust, which last year received
an improvement notice on stress from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE),
were too stressed to take part in a workplace stress survey, it has emerged.
Royal College of Nursing regional officer Melanie Glover told Nursing
Standard magazine that nurses had been unable to find time to complete the
20-minute survey.
Nearly 400,000 pieces of data were collected from a trust-wide survey
conducted after the HSE issued its notice in July last year. But the lowest
return was from the trust’s 1,250 nurses.
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The survey results are now being analysed by researchers at Exeter
University, who have drawn up an action plan for the trust to help meet HSE
requirements, including how to monitor workplace stress. It has been given
until 15 March by the HSE to put its house in order.
RCN steward Jenny Price also said the HSE had originally been called in
following a complaint by a nurse who claimed that the trust had not dealt with
her stress issue.
