Attitudes of Nursing Staff Towards Co-workers Returning from Psychiatric and Physical Illnesses

Background: Co-worker support, or lack of it, plays an important role in the contribution of workplace pressure to psychiatric illness and rehabilitation after sickness.

Aims: To develop and validate a measure to compare attitudes towards co-workers with different illnesses to identify specific aspects of colleagues' attitudes which may hinder the reintegration in the workplace after sickness absence of individuals with common psychiatric conditions.

Method: A measure of co-worker behavioural concern was developed and validated using focus groups and a pilot study to determine questionnaire items. This was followed by a cross-sectional survey of 532 nursing staff within a UK hospital assessing attitudes to vignettes of a co-worker with different embedded diagnoses.

Results: A measure of attitudes to co-workers was developed and validated. In the survey of nurses this revealed that attitudes were significantly more negative towards co-workers returning after psychiatric illnesses than to those with diabetes. Those with alcohol problems were held in particularly low esteem.

Conclusions: Psychiatric illnesses are stigmatised compared with physical illnesses, with the degree of behavioural blame evidently important. Co-worker reliability, predictability and coping were more important issues than particular work-related skills and could be incorporated into return-to-work plans.