Stress, burnout and unsafe conditions were reported by members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation in its 2026 member survey.
Over two thirds (67%) of the survey’s respondents stated their current staffing levels and skill mix did not meet the required clinical and patient demands in their work area, and over 39% reported that their work negatively impacted their psychological wellbeing and almost a quarter (24.1%) reported attending their GP due to work related stress in the past 12 months.
The survey also shows staffing remains a major concern for members in 2026, with INMO members expressing concern about the safety of their patients. Of the 61% of respondents who stated they had considered leaving their work area in the past month, 80% reported unsafe staffing levels. In relation to workplace staffing and workload pressures, almost half (46%) of respondents felt pressure to work additional hours or shifts.
The INMO released its annual member survey this morning at the launch of its 107th annual conference in Dundalk. The union says the conference theme Wellbeing, Safety and Solidarity, will bring a particular focus to the long term physical and psychological effects of staffing deficits, capacity shortages, and stress, and members will debate motions relating to staffing, safety concerns, and protecting their own health in increasingly challenging and dangerous workplaces.
In relation to the survey findings, INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said:
The main solution to solving rising levels of burnout is underpinning safe staffing policies with legislation. If workplaces were guaranteed to be safe, it would lessen the burden on nurses and midwives. The voluntarist approach to implementing safe staffing policies is clearly not working.
This level of stress is not something anyone can or should live with in the long term, and the fact that conditions have been allowed to deteriorate to this level reflects very badly on the organisations and people who are responsible for this workforce.
The levels of stress and burnout we are seeing here should be considered a national crisis, and we need to recognise that this would not be accepted in other sectors.
It is impossible to see how recruitment and retention of nurses and midwives can be increased to meet growing demand when we are hearing how these members today are struggling to protect themselves under the stress of unreasonable expectations and unsafe conditions.
Our members, seeing no effective solutions coming from their employers, are going to spend much of their annual conference discussing the solutions and mitigations they need implemented so that can stay well at work.
Despite their exhausting working conditions, nurses and midwives continue to advocate for the future of a health service that has become harmful to their own health.
INMO President Caroline Gourley said:
It is worrying that nurses and midwives do not have adequate protection in the workplace. Clearly, without safe staffing legislation in place, the HSE are going to continue to ignore the safe staffing policies.
Our colleagues are telling us clearly that they are struggling, they are stressed, and they are getting sick due to the unreasonable pressures of providing safe care in unsafe conditions.
It is a question of basic forward planning to address these issues now, rather than putting it off indefinitely. By the time the health service has finished running this workforce into the ground it will be far too late.
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