Over half of French nurses on brink of professional burn-out amid Covid-19 pandemic – survey

More than the half of French nurses are close to burning out due to the pressure the ongoing pandemic has put on the nation’s medical workers, who struggle with increased work and lack of holidays, a new survey indicates.

Some 57 percent of France’s nurses have described their condition as “state of professional exhaustion” since the beginning of the pandemic, the national French nursing union has said, publishing results of a survey of nearly 60,000 nurses across the nation.

Nearly half of the burnt-out nurses believe their exhaustion may be affecting their ability to perform their professional duties. They have been struggling with the overwhelming work due to coronavirus pandemic and one in five of them have been unable to take a holiday since March, the survey shows.

Before the pandemic reached France early this year, only 33 percent of the nation’s nurses said they had been living through a “professional exhaustion period,” the union noted.

While France has a vast army of some 700,000 nurses, about 34,000 nursing positions are currently vacant. Moreover, 37 percent of the nurses considered changing their job during the pandemic, while 43 percent doubt they will still be nurses in 5 years, the union revealed.

France is among the worst pandemic-hit European nations with more than 730,000 confirmed coronavirus cases registered, lagging behind only Spain with its tally of some 880,000 cases. Nearly 33,000 people across France have succumbed to the virus, fresh statistics by the John Hopkins University shows. Globally, the coronavirus tally is rapidly approaching the 37.5 million mark, while more than 1 million people have been killed by the disease. The US, India and Brazil remain the worst-hit, accounting for over a half of the global Covid-19 cases.

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