Nurses working in aged care are paid so poorly that they are forced to stay on higher casual rates and work 52 weeks a year to attain a living wage, the royal commission has heard. Paul Gilbert from the ANMF’s ...
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Registered nurse numbers and staff safety linked: UK report
Researchers at Birmingham City University in the UK have found a link between the number of registered nurses on a ward and staff safety. The academics looked at three years of data from an NHS mental healthcare provider and found ...
More »Slew of aged care workers plan to leave the sector: survey
Attrition is a key player in the aged care sector's future workforce woes and a new survey has shown why. The survey of 5,000 workers revealed more than two-thirds (38 per cent) plan to leave the aged care sector within five years. ...
More »Rural nursing: what difference does personality make?
Rural and remote communities face many unique challenges when it comes to healthcare. Well publicised is the fact that those living in these areas are at higher risk of major disease than their metropolitan counterparts. Access is a key barrier ...
More »Nursing behind bars: specialist postgrad certificate announced for prison work
"Look, we probably need to get you into this environment and see how you respond to it before you can actually make a decision yourself whether or not this is for you," they said to nurse Adam Spicer after his ...
More »Skilling up: the postgrad edge
In comparison to other disciplines, Australian nursing has only come relatively lately to academia. Traditionally, academic qualifications were not viewed as necessary for nurses. The movement of nursing education to the tertiary sector has seen many changes from the ...
More »The struggle for legitimacy: nursing in Australia
At the recent ACN National Nursing Forum Georgina Willetts gave the key note speech on nursing's past, present and future. Willetts joined the profession aged 17 because she "didn’t want to go to university," and had no aspirations of leadership or pursuing a ...
More »How one nurse’s experience of family violence shaped her career
Sarah* is a survivor of multigenerational family violence. She grew up in what she describes as a “dysfunctional home”. Her mother was an alcoholic who was emotionally abusive. And at age 20, her uncle sexually assaulted her. Sarah is not ...
More »Can working in aged care produce better nurses?
Research by academics at Western Sydney University has found that nursing undergrads who work in aged care while completing their studies are learning valuable skills and enter the profession ahead of their graduate peers. The research surveyed new graduate nurses ...
More »What temporarily losing her vision taught one nurse about the profession
HESTA award winner Veronique Murphy, an associate nurse unit manager at Alfred Health, was recently invited by Deakin University to be a guest speaker at the School of Nursing and Midwifery’s awards night. Below is an edited transcript of the ...
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