Stress of fitness to practice inquiries ‘has driven nurses to suicide’

THE stress of facing a fitness to practice inquiry has led to hospitalisation, and even suicide of nurses, and the situation will worsen if inquiries are held in public, nurses heard yesterday.

Delegates attending the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) annual conference in Co Meath spoke of the “unbearable stress” colleagues endure when they are the subject of a complaint to An Bord Altranais, the nursing regulatory body.

INMO director of organisation and social policy Clare Treacy said she had heard of two suicides in the past three years involving nurses who were due to undergo an FTP inquiry. She also knew of a woman who died of a heart attack within 24 hours of receiving the book of evidence, she said. The woman had retired from the Health Service Executive (HSE) and had taken a job in a local nursing home, when a complaint was made relating to all the nurses. Two years later, the INMO received a copy of the book of evidence, as did the woman.