Europe’s doctors and nurses are facing ‘burnout, despair, or violence,’ WHO warns

One in three doctors and nurses in Europe are depressed – and their working conditions are making their mental health worse, a major new survey has found.

In some cases, health workers’ depression is severe. One in 10 doctors and nurses said they had experienced passive suicidal thoughts over the past year, which could raise the risk of suicidal behaviour later on.

“This is an unacceptable burden on those who care for us. It doesn’t have to be this way,” said Dr Hans Henri Kluge, Europe director for the World Health Organization (WHO), which launched the survey last year.

The report included more than 90,000 doctors and nurses from across the European Union, Iceland, and Norway.

The health sector’s working conditions appear to be part of the problem, the report found. Over the past year, one in three doctors and nurses said they experienced bullying or violent threats at work, and 10 per cent said they experienced physical violence or sexual harassment.

Meanwhile, a quarter of doctors said they work more than 50 hours per week, and many health workers – 32 per cent of doctors and 25 per cent of nurses – are on temporary employment contracts, which can create anxiety about job security, the report said.

Health workers who faced violence, consistently long hours, and shift work were more likely to be depressed, anxious, or to have suicidal thoughts.

Burnout and mental health problems can have serious consequences for patients. Across countries, between 11 per cent and 34 per cent of health workers said they were thinking about leaving their jobs – amid an ongoing worker shortage that is projected to reach 940,000 by 2030.

When health workers leave their jobs or take sick leave to cope with the mental health toll of their work, it puts pressure on health systems. That means patients can face longer wait times and receive worse medical care.

“We are physically and mentally exhausted, which unfortunately can sometimes lead to medical errors,” Mélanie Debarreix, a radiology resident from France, said in the report.

She cited French data showing that 66 per cent of medical students have experienced a depressive episode and 21 per cent have had suicidal thoughts over the past year, a level three times higher than the general public.

Kluge called for health systems to take steps to improve their workers’ wellbeing, including enforcing zero-tolerance policies for workplace violence, rethinking shift and overtime work to “end the culture of work-till-exhaustion,” and ensuring health workers have access to mental health support.

“Ultimately, the mental health crisis among our health workers is a health security crisis, threatening the integrity of our health systems,” he said, adding that “we cannot afford to lose them to burnout, despair, or violence”.