July 27, 2010

A survey recently released by the Japan Federation of Medical Workers’ Unions (Iroren) shows that 73.5 percent of nursing personnel suffer from “chronic fatigue”, a 7.2 points increase from 1990.

“I feel still tired from the previous day frequently,” 51.2 percent of respondents answered. 22.3 percent said, “I always feel tired and cannot recover during days off.” In proportion to increases in overtime work, “chronic fatigue” gets worse. 38.2 percent complained about health problems, 22.2 points higher than in other occupational categories.

In addition, 86.9 percent of respondents said that they had made or almost made a mistake in judgment during the past three years. Most nursing staff (84.9 percent) believe that continuous medical accidents can be attributed to “a chronic understaffing problem”. 51.9 percent expressed the opinion that they “cannot provide enough nursing care to patients” and 81.4 percent said that “they are so busy due to a staff shortage” and cited this as the main reason for inadequate provision of nursing care.
- Akahata, July 27, 2010