Suffering with suicide’ - revisioning distress and nurse suicidality through a feminist and critical suicidology lens'

Project Description

There are currently 301, 491 registered nurses working in the NHS. Suicides among female nurses in the UK are four times the national average and elevated in other high income countries too. Research exploring why there are high suicide rates in female nurses is limited; critical suicidology (the scientific study of suicidal behaviour, the causes of suicidalness and suicide prevention) highlights that existing research frequently focuses on individual risk factors, is predominated by psychiatry, is underpinned by the biomedical model and privileges quantitative methodologies and positivism over qualitative and philosophical positions which provide representation, visibility for diverse voices while illuminating experiences and contextual factors pertinent to this population of healthcare professionals. Current suicide research is colour and gender blind and fails to account for other categories of relevance to the nursing population such as class and colonialism. Women comprise almost 90% of the nursing workforce, one in four nurses working in the UK are Black Asian Minority Ethnic while non-EU nurses comprise 20% of new nursing recruits to the NHS with Philipino, Indian and Nigerian nurses comprising the largest cohort of overseas nurses.

Current research gaps have contributed to a potential distortion of and critical deficit within the knowledge base and those policies and interventions which guide prevention and postvention activities. To address this imbalance and revision our understanding of suicidality and insight into the complex causes and contexts which underpin distress in the nursing population, this programme of work will adopt a critical suicidology perspective which employs a holistic approach toward understanding suicide within the nursing population taking account of occupational, ethical, environmental, biographical, cultural, social, economic, political and historical contexts. Given the higher rates of suicides among female nurses, we will employ a feminist qualitative research methodology employing an intersectional lens which will explore and understand how forms of inequality operate and compound each other while elucidating contexts which contribute to personal suffering, distress and suicidality within the nursing population. By continuing to individualise suicide, alternative accounts are likely to be overshadowed and potential solutions, overlooked. Drawing on an interdisciplinary approach involving sociologists, psychologists, bioethicists, anthropologists, clinicians, policymakers, and in collaboration with story-tellers and film-makers, this timely and important research will therefore aim to address these critical gaps.