Annie May looks at how the nursing profession fared in the latest national report card on health.
Nursing and midwifery professionals have the lowest growth rate within the nation's health services industries, which as a whole is growing at a rate almost double to other occupations. This was one of the findings revealed in the latest national report card on health, released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), which brings together the latest available national statistics on health. Despite the well recognised and publicised nursing shortage and recent government initiatives to address the issue, the number of nurses and midwives only increased by eight per cent...
Glenda Darville
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
And I have to add that very little is being done by public sector employers to retain their current ageing staff. When I request less night duty because I cannot operate at a safe and competent level in busy working environments and cannot drive home safely, I am informed by nursing management that I have to do my share - a quarter of my rostered days per month, i.e. 4 nights per month. This means that I work in an unsafe way for me and the people in my care during the larger portion of the shift and this, in the 59th year of my life and 42nd year of practice. This inflexibility of rostering practice means that I will be leaving the workforce as a permanent part-time employee -.8FTE- much sooner (by my 60th birthday). This is becoming common practice amongst many of my similarly aged and younger colleagues. The only reason that many nurses and midwives are still in the workforce is because they do not have enough superannuation to retire on. Many find the pace of work at work is very trying and very tiring.
sue
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
I have to agree with Glenda. Rostering is often based on the out-dated idea that we have a huge like volume of 20-somethings able to be burnt out and wasted like the "boomers" were - except there are more left now due to sheer numbers. There were high attrition levels in the hospital programs where I worked as a nurse educator. There is just an unbelievable lack of creative management strategies to deal with the problem. When will these incompetent managers be put on the scrap heap? It seems instead, we put good, loyal, capable and hard-working clinicians like Glenda on the scrap heap instead!
Dorothy
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
I have been concerned for some time over the retention rates in my local hospital especially with younger staff. Most of my colleagues are over 40 years, and the expectations of us are enormous. The level of responsibility and work loads far exceed appropriate wages – I also work in the oil & gas industry, so I can see the vast disparity between both. Younger staff frequently struggle with lack of support and leave within two years of post graduation if not sooner. Older staff are there mainly to support adult children living at home or such as myself to support my single status also with adult children at home. I agree with Glenda & Sue when will management support, listen, and understand that plying high ratio of patients to nurses continues to drive many from the profession and mostly because hospitals are businesses and the dollar continues to rule – not patient care nor nurses health & wellbeing.
Sandy Macdonald
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
If we continue to only spend just over 2 per cent of the total health expenditure on preventive and health promotion approaches there will contine to be increasing numbers of hospital admissions!
Jenny
Monday, 19 July 2010
Now we replace nurses with insufficiently trained non nurses - AINs - there goes the quality, can't take a BP unless by electronics, don't know what to worry about!!!!
Karen
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
The younger nurses coming from universities are not as well prepared for the demands of shift work as was the nurse of hospital based training. The young nurse of today comes from a generation of what they want comes first hence the demands of a roster take second place. The older nurses who were "rostered" from day one remain the stalwarts of the ward. Once we retire then one only hopes that the patients only get sick from 9 to 5 Monday to Friday!
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Glenda Darville
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
And I have to add that very little is being done by public sector employers to retain their current ageing staff. When I request less night duty because I cannot operate at a safe and competent level in busy working environments and cannot drive home safely, I am informed by nursing management that I have to do my share - a quarter of my rostered days per month, i.e. 4 nights per month. This means that I work in an unsafe way for me and the people in my care during the larger portion of the shift and this, in the 59th year of my life and 42nd year of practice. This inflexibility of rostering practice means that I will be leaving the workforce as a permanent part-time employee -.8FTE- much sooner (by my 60th birthday). This is becoming common practice amongst many of my similarly aged and younger colleagues. The only reason that many nurses and midwives are still in the workforce is because they do not have enough superannuation to retire on. Many find the pace of work at work is very trying and very tiring.
sue
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
I have to agree with Glenda. Rostering is often based on the out-dated idea that we have a huge like volume of 20-somethings able to be burnt out and wasted like the "boomers" were - except there are more left now due to sheer numbers. There were high attrition levels in the hospital programs where I worked as a nurse educator. There is just an unbelievable lack of creative management strategies to deal with the problem. When will these incompetent managers be put on the scrap heap? It seems instead, we put good, loyal, capable and hard-working clinicians like Glenda on the scrap heap instead!
Dorothy
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
I have been concerned for some time over the retention rates in my local hospital especially with younger staff. Most of my colleagues are over 40 years, and the expectations of us are enormous. The level of responsibility and work loads far exceed appropriate wages – I also work in the oil & gas industry, so I can see the vast disparity between both. Younger staff frequently struggle with lack of support and leave within two years of post graduation if not sooner. Older staff are there mainly to support adult children living at home or such as myself to support my single status also with adult children at home. I agree with Glenda & Sue when will management support, listen, and understand that plying high ratio of patients to nurses continues to drive many from the profession and mostly because hospitals are businesses and the dollar continues to rule – not patient care nor nurses health & wellbeing.
Sandy Macdonald
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
If we continue to only spend just over 2 per cent of the total health expenditure on preventive and health promotion approaches there will contine to be increasing numbers of hospital admissions!
Jenny
Monday, 19 July 2010
Now we replace nurses with insufficiently trained non nurses - AINs - there goes the quality, can't take a BP unless by electronics, don't know what to worry about!!!!
Karen
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
The younger nurses coming from universities are not as well prepared for the demands of shift work as was the nurse of hospital based training. The young nurse of today comes from a generation of what they want comes first hence the demands of a roster take second place. The older nurses who were "rostered" from day one remain the stalwarts of the ward. Once we retire then one only hopes that the patients only get sick from 9 to 5 Monday to Friday!