A NURSE has said it is becoming difficult to sell the job as a career choice to young people because of the daily pressures staff face on hospital wards.

The 46-year-old, who works in a West of Scotland hospital, told of the “disappointment” and stress of being unable to provide the level of care she would like, including having to delay answering patient buzzers and rushing through observations with little time to speak to patients.

She told of staff leaving before their notice period was up because they couldn’t face working another day and nurses having to work in areas they were unfamiliar with, due to staff shortages.

She said: “It’s the thought that I could have done better. I haven’t caused anyone harm but I could have done better.

"I love my job but sometimes I just think, 'can we slow down for a break.'

“My worry is children and young people see the stress that nurses are under, so why would they choose it as a career?”

The nurse, who has worked in the NHS for 20 years, spoke to the Evening Times, after it emerged almost 30,000 days were lost in Glasgow’s health service due to stress in just three months, from April to June.

Scottish Labour, who released the figures, blamed chronic staff shortages while union leaders urged opposition politicians to work together to find a way forward to help ease the pressure on staff.

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The nurse said: “I’ve been a nurse for 23 years. The workload has increased, the demand on nursing staff, not just nurses, has increased.

“You have patient buzzers going off but there is no one there to answer it. The patients are having to wait and that puts staff under a lot of stress.

“Sometimes you are just rushing in to do observations but that patient wants to have an actual conversation but you’ve got so many patients you have to see.

“Nurses are not being replaced so you are working with less and doing more.

“It’s not just more nurses we need it’s nursing staff such as healthcare support workers.

“We’ve got people off sick and we’ve got an age group which are going off on maternity leave and with the best will in the world, trying to get people to come in and cover shifts is very difficult.

“It’s not that we’ve been told we can’t have bank staff but we just can’t get them.

“You are doing extra hours, working over your shift and people are just getting fed up of it.

“Sometimes you are lucky if you get one break.”

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The nurse said ward managers face difficulties securing bank staff to cover shifts and said community nursing was not resourced adequately to cope with the current treatment model of seeing more patients in their own home.

She said: “The department I work in, we have to have our minimum number of staff so I know we always provide the best care we can but I can see the pressures on the wards.

“Colleagues don’t like get moved into other areas because it’s out of their comfort zone. If there are shortfalls in areas, people get moved and they find it very stressful to work in areas they aren’t familiar with.

“If we don’t get the staff it’s going to have an impact on patient care.”

The nurse said she loves her job despite the pressures and hopes to stay in the profession for another 20 years but said it was becoming increasingly difficult to persuade others of the benefits.

She said:”How do you sell nursing as a career now?

“I love my job, I love being busy but there are times when I think, ‘Can we just slow down to have a break?’

“I know of one nurse who was retiring and couldn’t wait the three months until her pension came through.”

“We need to show staff they are listened to because I don’t think they feel valued.

“There needs to be investment from the government but it’s about asking us what we really need.”

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A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The staff in Scotland’s NHS work hard every day to provide high quality care and it is by its nature a stressful job. They deal daily with people in pain, distress and facing life and death situations and we are extremely grateful to have such dedicated and professional staff.

“We take their welfare and health very seriously, and every health board has robust policies in place to support the mental health and wellbeing of employees.

“NHS workforce numbers are at an historic high in Scotland, with more than 12,000 additional whole time equivalent staff numbers since 2006. We have grown the qualified nursing and midwifery workforce by almost 6%, with more than 2,349 extra whole time staff, and we are actively recruiting both nationally and internationally to fill vacancies.”