Nurses and caregivers mentally exhausted, feel pressured to work unprotected

70 percent of nurses and caregivers experience more psychological stress than usual due to the coronavirus crisis, complaining of fatigue, uncertainty, stress and insomnia. Over half experienced shortages of protective gear. And a third feel pressured to work without protection, according to a survey by association V&VN among over 10 thousand members, NOS reports.

Two months after the first coronavirus diagnosis in the Netherlands, 30 percent of nurses and caregivers reported having coronavirus-like symptoms. Half of them still went to work, usually because they never got a fever.

V&VN chairman Gerton Heyne called the results of the survey "harrowing". There is a lot of fear and uncertainty among the staff, he said to NOS. "The question of whether they themselves pose a danger to their patients is eating at them. That is an enormous emotional burden."

Heyne wants the RIVM guidelines for protective equipment outside hospitals to be amended. Now it is focused "more on scarcity than on protection", he said. V&VN wants care providers to always be protected by protective gear.