Nurses are presently working amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But can a nurse legally refuse to work? Most nurses are employed pursuant to a contract of employment. This is a legally binding arrangement between the employer and nurse. It sets out ...

What happens if this pandemic gets worse? What if it got so bad that healthcare workers, doctors and nurses all walked off the job? While the Australian healthcare system has been stretched by the COVID-19 crisis, it has yet to ...

Lyn McBain will celebrate 50 years as a nurse in this, The World Health Organization's Year of the Nurse. Leaving school as a fifteen-year-old and working as a registered nurse across brain injuries, aged, disability, palliative and rehabilitation care, Lyn ...

Kate Hackett is the Director of Nursing at Westmead Hospital in Sydney, ground zero for the treatment of COVID-19 here in Australia. Like everyone else, Hackett had seen the virus develop from afar over the summer period but could not ...

In the wake of a coronavirus outbreak at a Sydney aged care facility, with two staff confirmed to have contracted COVID-19, along with two residents – both of whom have died – health service unions are calling on the government ...

The royal commission has urged the aged care sector to reform its approach to the workforce, with counsel assisting Peter Rozen telling those gathered that “the time for action … is now”. At the third Adelaide hearing, Rozen handed the ...

Australia’s response to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has been criticised by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP). Its president, Dr Harry Nespolon, said the lack of government planning is “risking people’s health”. The RACGP is urging the government ...

Sleep pods are being installed in a number of hospitals across the NHS in the UK to help combat fatigue among health workers. The pods were first trialled by the Royal Wolverhampton NHS trust in June 2018 and a number ...

Associate Professor Leanne (Lulu) Zalapa has forged an extraordinary career. Leaving school before year 10, Lulu found herself working in a punch-card operator’s room, but harboured ambitions of becoming a nurse ever since first setting foot in a hospital to ...

Communication is the bedrock of nursing and for nurses from CALD backgrounds – one-third of nurses in Australia were born overseas – this can be sometimes challenging. Researchers at the University of South Australia’s School of Nursing and Midwifery believe ...