Suicidal feelings and work environment in psychiatric nursing personnel

Suicidal feelings, attempted suicide and aspects of work environment and well-being in Swedish psychiatric nursing personnel were studied using a questionnaire. The questionnaire, containing 190 questions, was mailed to all 242 nurses and attendants working in psychiatric care at the department of psychiatry at Karolinska Hospital. Eighty-one percent (n=197) returned the questionnaire. Suicidal feelings “last year” were lower than in the general population, but suicidal feeling and attempted suicide “earlier than last year” were much more common, and 13% reported that they had attempted suicide earlier in life. In order to study the possible association between work environment and suicide, a factor analysis was performed. Four factors were extracted and labelled: suicidality, quality of work, negative work environment and burn out/depression. The correlation between the factors suggests that negative work environment is associated with burn out/depression, which in turn is related to suicidality. No direct link was demonstrated between suicidality and work environment, and completed suicide was not investigated. The study provides some indirect evidence that a negative work environment may increase suicidal feelings.