Stressed-out nurses besiege helpline

Nurses are making 10,000 calls a year to experts asking for help coping with the stress of their jobs.

A retreat set up by a charity to help nurses suffering with the pressure of work cannot cope with the number coming to them. It is believed many more are suffering in silence.

About 300 nurses a year attend two retreats in the north of England where they undergo counselling and meditation to help them return to work. But staff at the centres take about 10,000 calls a year from nurses asking for help.

About half of nurses leaving the profession cite stresses of the job as one of the reasons.

The Rev Steve Wright, professor of health and social care at St Martin's College in Lancaster, runs the two retreats in the Lake District financed by the charity Sacred Space, which was set up by doctors and nurses. He said nurses are more prone to "burn-out" than other professions and more nurses than doctors find themselves unable to cope.

Mr Wright, who held a fringe meeting at the Royal College of Nursing congress in Harrogate, said: "I think there are about 15,000 to 20,000 nurses around the country who are burnt out or are close to it."