Are you a nurse? Take our short 5-10 min survey to tell us what you would want to see in a mental health toolkit made for you!

About Nursing Minds

Here at charity C3, we’re concerned about the escalating evidence that the mental health of our UK nurses is at risk and that more needs to be done to support them. This project, developed pre-pandemic and generously supported by the Burdett Trust for Nursing, builds upon the evidence produced in the Society of Occupational Medicine and RCN Foundation report ‘The Mental Health and Wellbeing of Nurses and Midwives in the UK‘.

Since COVID-19’s arrival, the need to address nurses’ mental health has become even more vital.

Why?

The parlous state of UK nurses’ mental health and wellbeing has been discussed for a decade and has been subject during that time to three major, competent credible reviews. Yet, little progress has been made. Now COVID-19 is compounding mental health concerns in nurses that were already present: for example, the suicide rate was 23% higher amongst nurses than the UK national average. In late April the International Council of Nurses reported that “nurses are experiencing unprecedented levels of stress,” and are at “high-risk for full-blown stress response syndromes, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic illness and burnout.” Black nurses and those from minority groups are at especial risk, as healthcare providers who are disproportionately represented amongst COVID-19 deaths.

What and how?

Nursing Minds aims to help generate change and support nurses by:

• Engaging with nurses about the resources they want and specific issues they are facing.
• Developing a mental health resources toolkit designed for nurses, by nurses, with a particular focus on nurses identifying as black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME).
• Semi-structured interviews with 15 key leaders to explore barriers and facilitators to the implementation of the recommendations in the SOM

Project timeline