ISN'T IT TIME WE LOOKED AFTER OUR NURSES?

Two years on from the first UK-wide lockdown, Woman’s Own investigates why more nurses are leaving the profession than ever before

- VERONIQUE HAWKSWORTH, JENNY ACKLAND

When the UK was plunged into lockdown for the first time on 23 March 2020, we faced a reality we could never have imagined. But while many of us were able to shelter from the virus, nurses put their own lives at risk to save others.

Two years on, the pressures and working conditions are taking their toll 57% of nurses are thinking about or actively planning on leaving the profession, according to a survey by the Royal College of Nursing. Staff said they felt ‘undervalued’ and ‘under too much pressure’, citing their poor wages, long hours, stressful working conditions and a lack of support.

As restrictions are quashed and life returns to a version of normality, it can be easy to forget those early days of worry and fear. But nurses will likely never forget what they witnessed within hospital walls.

Even before the pandemic, nurses have struggled under the weight of an underfunded and understaffed system. But where would the UK be without them?

On the second anniversary of the COVID-19 lockdown, Woman’s Own speaks to one woman who decided to leave the industry, and a senior sister who worked as a critical-care nurse during the pandemic.

‘He begged me not to let him die’

Anthea Allen is a senior sister in Critical Care at St George’s Hospital, south London. I always wanted to be a nurse. I joined

St George’s Hospital ICU in 1996 and soon realised Critical Care was my true calling, working to help people at their most vulnerable moments.