Nursing Times Resources for the nursing profession
Doctors make more insurance claims for car accidents than nurses, according to data analysis. This includes nursing staff that spend much of their time driving to and from patients, such as community nurses and health visitors.
In fact, GPs and consultants came top of a list of over 600 occupations as the most likely to make a claim on their car insurance.
Gocompare.com analysed 6,041,042 car insurance quotes made by customers on its website between January and November of 2013.
It looked at the number of drivers with car insurance claims in the past five years and ranked them to find out which occupations had the highest proportion of drivers with claims in 2013.
The top 10 was dominated by health and social care professionals, holding eight of the top 10 spots and making up 75% of the top 20.
Gocompare.com described health professionals as the “most accident prone drivers of 2013”.
As well as doctors, the top 10 also featured clinical psychologists, drugs counsellors, community nurses, dental surgeons and hospital managers.
Top 10 professions which have drivers with at least one claim:
| Rank | Occupation | % Customers with 1 or more claims |
| 1 | General practitioner | 28.6% |
| 2 | Hospital consultant | 26.2% |
| 3 | Clinical psychologist | 25% |
| 4 | Drug addiction counsellor | 24.9% |
| 5 | Probation officer | 24.2% |
| 6 | Dental surgeon | 23.9% |
| 7 | Health visitor | 23.8% |
| 8 | Community nurse | 23.6% |
| 9 | Hospital manager | 23.4% |
| 10 | Town planner | 23.3% |
Almost a third of GPs (29%) had made at least one car insurance claim in the past five years. The proportion of GPs with a claim was not only the highest of any occupation in the UK, but more than double the national average for all professions (13.12%).
Professor Andrew Smith, from Cardiff University’s School of Psychology, said: “Healthcare is typically considered a highly stressful occupation, which could explain why GPs and other health professionals seem to make more insurance claims than others.
“Stress can dramatically affect a person’s health and cognitive functions,” he added. “Typically, the types of accidents that are attributed to stress tend to be relatively minor bumps, caused by lapses in concentration whilst driving.”
Further analysis of the data for Nursing Times revealed the nursing jobs that had a higher proportion of drivers with one or more claims than the national average of 13.12%.
| Rank | Occupation | % Customers with 1 or more claims |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Health visitor | 23.80% |
| 9 | Community Nurse | 23.58% |
| 13 | District Nurse | 23.05% |
| 48 | Nursing Manager | 20.81% |
| 57 | Nursing Sister | 20.58% |
| 129 | Staff Nurse | 18.30% |
| 233 | Nurse | 16.39% |
| 305 | Dental Nurse | 14.76% |
| 312 | Nursery Nurse | 14.64% |
| 348 | Student Nurse- living at home | 13.96% |
| 355 | Auxiliary Nurse | 13.85% |
| 362 | Nursing Assistant | 13.63% |
The profession with the least claims in the last five years were car dealers, with only 3%. Other occupations with a lower proportion of claimers than the national average included bar staff, van drivers, painters, plasterers, tattoo artists and professional footballers.
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