Abstract
According to recent statistics suicide continues to be on the rise in the United States with approximately 44,965 Americans dying each year by suicide. Currently suicides are tracked by age, gender, race/ethnicity, method, attempts, and some occupations. Occupations listed with the highest rate of suicide include doctors (approximately 2 times more likely to commit suicide than the average American), dentists, health care workers, financial planners, real estate professionals, electricians, teachers, farm workers, pharmacists, police officers, and military personnel. So where are the statistics for nurses? This poster presentation furthers the discussion of nurse suicide and seeks to clarify possible underlying causes and strategies for prevention. Suicide among Nurses Suicide remains a major public health concern and leading cause of death in the United States. On average, approximately 123 suicides are completed per day. Researchers know that the rate of suicide is highest among middle age white men, with men dying by suicide 3.5 times more often than women. Literature reviews indicate that the effects of suicide go beyond the person who takes his/her life. How much more when that person is a nurse? Approximately 3.4 million nurses are practicing in the United States, making this one of the largest groups of health care workers and yet there is no national data on nurse suicide rates. Anecdotal reflections are available by nurses whose colleagues committed suicide, with literature reviews and searches yielding limited research/descriptive studies on suicide among nurses. Potential Underlying Causes Nurses face a variety of physical and psychological challenges related to their occupations. Some of these include possible physical assault, ethical issues, anxiety, depression, compassion fatigue, and second victim syndrome. Researchers believe a combination of home and work stressors put individuals at a higher risk for suicide than having only home or only work-related stressors. Underlying work-related stressors for nurses can include work volume, management issues, staffing, lateral violence, feelings of incompetence, feeling unappreciated at work, fear of harming patients, and the emotional burden of patient care. Home related stressors may include marital sprain, financial issues, grief, personal/family health concerns, child care issues, lack of purpose in life, personal/family drug or alcohol use.