About 13% of newly qualified nurses and midwives leave hospital work within six years

A recent study of newly qualified nurses and midwives in Denmark has revealed that about 13% of hospital-based graduates leave hospital work within six years of entering the profession. This finding comes from a research conducted by Louise Schubert Paaske, a Ph.D. student in health economics at the Danish Centre for Health Economics.

The study, published in the journal Communications Health, compared hospital-based nurses and midwives to graduates in 36 other sectors. During the first four years of employment, hospital-based nurses and midwives experienced higher rates of long-term sick leave and back disorders compared to the comparison group. The differences between the groups narrowed after the four-year mark, but the researchers caution against assuming improved hospital-based health.

Around 13% of hospital-based nurses and midwives left hospital work during the six-year period, with long-term sick leave and mental health problems increasing in the period leading up to their departure and declining afterward. While the study found lower use of mental health services among hospital-based nurses and midwives, this should be interpreted cautiously, as the research relies on register data that cannot measure mental well-being directly.

The lower use of treatment and health care services may reflect the fact that psychological strain has not resulted in a recorded diagnosis or treatment. The study design accounted for many factors, but it cannot definitively establish a cause-and-effect relationship between leaving hospital work and improved health.