A HOSPITAL staff survey has revealed some employees feel overworked and do not have job satisfaction.
Unison surveyed staff working for Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust – the organisation in charge of Castle Hill Hospital and Hull Royal Infirmary.
It came after it was revealed between October 2011 and September last year, 22,000 days were lost to sickness due to anxiety and/or stress.
The results of the survey, sent to the Mail and the trust, revealed 42 per cent were not satisfied with their job. This statistic rose to 89 per cent for healthcare assistants.
More than half said they did not feel they had the resources to do their job properly, a figure that rose to 67 per cent for nursing staff.
Unison area organiser and report author Karen Towner said: "I think the amount for staff not taking rest and meal breaks, saying they had a lack of resources and those who felt unable to meet targets were the stand-out figures.
"When we heard that 22,000 days were being lost to anxiety and/or stress, we wanted to find out the reasons for that and ran the survey.
"While it is widely understood that staff working in the NHS environment are more vulnerable to sickness because of their association with ill patients, it is also true that people suffering high levels of stress are more prone to illness.
"But, unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel at the moment – the trust is being told to make huge savings when demands aren't diminishing."
A range of professions were involved in the survey, ranging from nurses and medical staff to administration workers and catering employees.
According to Unison's findings, 28 per cent of staff did not feel their skills, knowledge and experience matched the requirements of their job, with one respondent stating: "I feel I am doing more than my job requires."
When staff were asked if their workload was just right, 86 per cent of nursing staff said "no".
One respondent said: "There is too much emphasis on discharging patients ... never about care." Another said: "The workload is too much."
Ms Towner said: "We're hoping the trust will take on board the findings of the report and try to tackle and address the issues."
A trust spokesman said the organisation works hard to help any member of staff with stress and accepts that healthcare is a demanding profession.
The spokesman said: "We conduct an annual survey on stress and staff absence and we know that short-term staff attendance is improving.
"We are operating in a difficult environment at the moment and we are delivering a significant programme of staff engagement designed to enable staff to feel empowered to make decisions about their services and subsequently feel valued in their work."
