Half of all healthcare workers believe their workload is too high, according to new data from Statistics Netherlands on Thursday. A year earlier it was still 42%.
The data from Statistics Netherlands cover the second quarter of this year. People working in childcare experience the most work pressure. But employees in youth care and general medical studies also consider the workload to be above average.
In addition to the high workload, employees in the care sector also find work stressful. This concerns the pace of work, the amount of work and the ability to make decisions about the execution of the work.
According to Statistics Netherlands, 26% of healthcare workers faced a stressful job throughout 2021. This is well above the average for all Dutch employees, which is 18%. Only in the hospitality industry did employees experience more stress.
The number of vacancies in the health sector continues to increase. In the second quarter of this year, 65,000 vacancies were opened in the healthcare sector. In the third quarter there were already 68,000. According to research commissioned by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), the number of vacancies will almost double by 2031.
Statistics Netherlands cannot say whether the high workload is related to staff shortages in the sector. “We don’t have figures for that,” says a statistics office spokesman. “But we can imagine.”
