Care home nurses were "completely unprepared" for trauma of COVID pandemic, study shows
Care home staff are in need of mental health support, UEA says
A new study from the University of East Anglia (UEA) shows some care home nurses in England and Scotland are in need of mental health support, after being on the frontline of the Covid pandemic.
Research shows staff were "completely unprepared" for the traumatic and stressful conditions they found themselves in - which has had an adverse effect on their mental health.
The study highlights a range of strategies to help nurses accept and recover from their experiences, and suggestions for how to better-prepare for future pandemics. These include:
- Bespoke mental health and wellbeing strategy for care home nurses in the current pandemic recovery period and ensuring that this is ongoing and adaptable for future pandemics and disasters.
- Wider professional and government recognition of the specialist skills required of care home nurses.
- Revisit guidance to better prepare for any future pandemics and disasters on care homes
- Involvement of care home nurses in the development of disaster-response policies in care homes.
- Consistency of guidelines, and research-informed methods for effective communication of guidelines.
Lead researcher Diane Bunn, from UEA’s School of Health Sciences, said: “Our work shows that care home nurses were completely unprepared for the extraordinary situation they found themselves in during the Covid-19 pandemic, and that this has impacted their mental health and wellbeing.
“They had to manage a highly infectious new disease, associated with high mortality, in residents already living with complex clinical conditions.
“They did this alongside staff shortages, constantly changing and conflicting guidelines and with minimal external professional support.
“Health and social care staff are still very much in a recovery phase. They need time to recover from all that happened during the pandemic and many of them will need counselling and mental health support for some time.
“Supporting care home nurses to recover from the pandemic is essential to maintain a healthy, stable workforce.”
The research was funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Burdett Trust for Nursing and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said:
“We are incredibly proud of all our health and care staff and recognise their extraordinary commitment.
“In 2021, the government published a white paper setting out how we would develop and support the adult social care workforce with a vision over the next three years.
“We continue to work closely with the Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care, Professor Deborah Sturdy OBE, and the sector to identify what more we can do to attract and support registered nurses, nursing associates and nurse apprentices to and within adult social care.”