Today marks the start of the European Week for Safety and Health at Work 2026. This year, EFN is raising awareness on mental health as an official campaign partner of the EU-OSHA Healthy Workplaces Campaign 2026-28, focusing on preventing psychosocial risks in the workplace.
EFN contributed to the WHO Europe Mental Health of Nurses and Doctors (MeND) survey, with over 90,000 responses collected from the 27 EU Member States, Iceland and Norway, revealed the extent of the nursing workforce’s mental health crisis : 1) One in three nurses report symptoms of depression or anxiety; 2) Three per cent report signs of probable alcohol dependence; 3) Nurses are five times as likely as the general population to experience symptoms of depression (32% vs 6%); 4) Over 10% of nurses report thoughts of ending their life or harming themselves. Worryingly, according to the MeND survey, these symptoms are directly associated with poor working conditions.
Therefore, EFN welcomes the European Week for Safety and Health at Work 2026 and the the EU-OSHA Healthy Workplaces Campaign 2026-28, as raising awareness towards these important challenges is key to push on EU Policymakers to take urgent and concrete action to address psychosocial risks.
Furthermore, the October 2026 EFN General Assembly has approved an EFN Policy Statement on Health and Safety at Work, which calls for the recognition of Safe Staffing Levels, supported by legislation and enforcement, as a core occupational health and safety measure to secure a safe working environment and protect nurses from psychosocial and musculoskeletal disorders. Therefore, the EFN calls on the adequate implementation of the European Parliament EMPL-SANT INI Report on ‘An EU health workforce crisis plan: sustainability of healthcare systems and employment and working conditions in the healthcare sector’, and the EMPL INL Report on ‘Psychosocial risks, stress and mental health at work’ recommendations, including the proposal for an EU Directive on the prevention of work-related psychosocial risks, stress and mental health at work.
Finally, EFN welcomes the work being conducted by the KEEPCARING Project, which brings together research institutions, clinical partners, technology developers, and end-users representatives, like EFN, to design, test, and evaluate research and evidence-based interventions that strengthen workforce resilience in hospital settings. Importantly, the KEEPCARING Project is working towards developing evidence-based interventions to address individual, team, and organizational stressors, and thus improve the wellbeing and resilience of frontline healthcare professionals. At the team/organisational level, a good example is Study E (led by Erasmus University Rotterdam) which looks at how teams of healthcare professionals can actively shape their work to improve their well-being and functioning. EFN will act as a bridge between the KEEPCARING Project and the EU-OSHA Healthy Workplaces Campaign 2026-28, ensuring that the KEEPCARING findings can reach as many relevant stakeholders as possible in the EU and Europe.
On the European Week for Safety and Health at Work 2026, the EFN calls on policymakers to improve the working conditions of frontline nurses and allied healthcare professionals as a necessary step to strengthen the resilience of EU and European healthcare systems!