A report on nurse suicides recently found that the profession had higher rates of death by suicide than non-nurses in the US.

Nursing is one of the fastest-growing occupations in the US, yet nurses work long hours and often face physical abuse on the job.

Nursing is one of many occupations with increasing rates of suicide.

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Nurses — who typically work long hours and may face abuse on the job — are more likely to take their own lives, a new study found.

Researchers from the University of California at San Diego recently conducted what they said is the first nationwide investigation into nurse suicides in more than 20 years. They found that both male and female nurses had higher rates of suicide than men and women in the US.

The findings are consistent with the increasing rates of suicide across the country. The US suicide rate has risen in recent years, increasing by 28% in the past two decades, to the highest it's been since World War II.

Read more: Nurses reveal the best parts about their job, from the steady pay to helping save lives

For nurses, hardships on the job include working long hours because of nationwide worker shortages, plus dealing with physical and verbal abuse on the job.

Here's what the high rate of suicide among nurses tells us about the crisis facing one of the nation's most in-demand jobs.

If you are a nurse with a story to share, email aakhtar@businessinsider.com.