When It's the Nurse Who Needs Looking After

Nurses make up the largest group of health care providers in the United States, working in venues as varied as doctors' offices and biotech firms, governmental agencies and private insurers. Trusted more than almost any other professional, nurses exert a wide-ranging influence on how health care is delivered and defined.

But nurses' work is not easy, particularly in the hospital setting, where they must deal with intense intellectual and significant physical demands over three or more grueling 12-hour shifts each week. Not surprisingly, nursing ranks among the worst occupations in terms of work-related injuries, and studies have shown that in a given year, nearly half of all nurses will have struggled with lower back pain.

The obvious question, then, is this: If the nurses are grappling at work with all these injuries, what is happening to patients?

Read the full article here: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com