Lack of resources and hospital mismanagement are two situations that are causing mental health issues to nurses, Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses president Paul Pace said, insisting that nurses should be offered protection from factors that cause stress on the job.

Contacted by The Malta Independent, Pace said that there are many factors which currently affect the mental health of nurses, “apart from the nature of the job itself”.

He said that currently there is a lack of resources, which adds more pressure to the already present stressors the job comes with.

Pace said that, for example, that printers and furniture are not replaced or repaired add to the pressure nurses feel. They should be dealing with sick patients, instead of focusing on trying to find out where they can print important documents or get the chairs they need.

He said that there have been cases when certain nurses refused to go to work anymore as they could not stand it mentally. He said that it is not the first time that nurses requested to be moved from one ward to another because of such situations.

Other problems which he mentioned is what he described as mismanagement of nurses at Mater Dei Hospital, together with a shortage of nurses and other human resources needed to allow for a smoother running of the hospital facilities.

He said that all these shortcomings from the hospital’s side have resulted in several nurses leaving the profession for good as they could no longer manage the stress.

 

Psychological help offered

Although he could not confirm whether mental health services are offered to nurses on the job, Pace said that even if they were, most nurses would opt out as they wouldn’t want their colleagues to know that they are using psychological services.

However, he confirmed that the Union itself does offer to pay for mental health services any nurse might need privately.

Asked how many nurses make use of this service, he said “unfortunately it is used a lot”. This indicates that problems affecting nurses present at Mater Dei are constantly on the rise.

 

Mater Dei’s childcare centre

Pace was contacted in the wake of the closing down of the childcare centre at the hospital, which came about abruptly and which left nurses not knowing how to proceed. The Centre offered them the possibility to leave their children there while they are at work, but finding it closed without warning created difficulties to nurses who used its services.

After being closed on Monday, Health Minister Chris Fearne had told media the day after that the Centre has been reopened but refused to elaborate as to why it was closed in the first place.

However, it turned out that the childcare centre is in fact still closed and is expected to remain closed for a number of weeks over what is believed to be a licensing issue.