Citation

Riley R, Causer H, Patrick L, Rogowsky R. J. Adv. Nurs. 2024; 80(4): 1245-1247.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/jan.15899

PMID

37828683

Abstract

In the UK, 90% of nurses are female, a figure replicated at the global level. A significant proportion are also from the global ethnic majority (NMC, 2023; ONS, 2019). Notably, the risk of suicide among female nurses is 23% higher compared to women in other occupational groups (NCISH, 2020). Despite this significant finding, our understanding of this phenomenon remains limited, in part due to how we interpret suicide in certain contexts. This has clear implications for potential solutions.

Quantitative, retrospective paradigms using data from death registers have typically been employed to investigate suicides among healthcare professionals. This generates inferences that are based on individual-level data, for instance, individual health factors, coroners' verdicts, and limited contextual data. Critically, this overlooks key factors including demographic data not routinely collated on death registers (e.g. ethnicity); detailed occupational data (settings-community, acute, mental health settings); and relevant work contexts or events which contribute to distress or undermine resilience and may lead to feelings of hopelessness, despair or isolation. This results in a failure to investigate the potential impact of political, economic, social and cultural factors pertinent to nurses. Further, they ignore sociological theories that situate the roots of suicide as external to the individual. As such, alternative accounts and relevant contextual factors are overshadowed and potential solutions may therefore be overlooked. ...

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Suicide