Assistant minister Ged Kearney is a former nurse. She lived it. She should be moving heaven and earth to change it.
Every week brings fresh evidence of the crisis Australia’s nursing workforce is facing.
Last week, almost half of the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union’s members reported they were considering leaving their profession due to burnout and overwork.
This week Victoria’s nurses were threatening to close a quarter of the state’s public hospital beds and cancel planned surgeries if the Allen government couldn’t come up with a better pay deal in the next fortnight.
Late last year Victoria University published research on Australia’s nursing shortage.
“Australia is currently experiencing a dire nurse shortage,” the authors wrote.
“Nurses play a critical part in Australia’s health ecosystem. Currently, there are approximately 303,000 registered nurses in Australia, but many more qualified nurses are needed.”
Key issues contributing to this shortage were highlighted, including an ageing population and the increase on demand for health services; an ageing workforce; violence in the workplace; a gendered workforce; and nurse burnout.
This week the Department of Health and Aged Care threw nurses and midwives what it calls a “$25.2 million lifeline” to tackle stress and burnout. The Nurse Midwife Health Program Australia is a free and confidential service for nurses, midwives and students.
In a recent survey seven out of 10 frontline health workers reported symptoms of severe or moderate burnout, according to the DoHAC press release.
“Australia’s healthcare system is powered by the sweat, hearts and expertise of nurses and midwives,” said assistant minister for health Ged Kearney, a former nurse.
“It’s vital that we look after the health and wellbeing of the people who look after us. I understand just how challenging nursing and midwifery can be. They’re physically demanding and psychologically taxing jobs. This program is long overdue.
“The Nurse Midwife Health Program Australia will support our nurses and midwives through tough times, offering independent advice, support and information.
“Importantly, the people answering calls and engaging with people seeking help are themselves nurses and midwives. They know the issues and challenges and know what people are going through – I wish I’d had it back in my day.”
Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing?
And while Ms Kearney should be applauded for her sentiments, shouldn’t she know that prevention is always better than treating the burnout, the anxiety and depression and the physical wounds inflicted by violent patients?
Shouldn’t we be better equipping our nurses to be able to manage in a job that has so many facets outside their control, including violent patients and often complex work environments?
Shouldn’t we be doing more to make nursing a profession young Australians – and even older Aussies looking to retrain – more accessible and attractive.
Currently, to become an enrolled nurse (EN) one has to get a diploma of nursing through a training organisation such as TAFE (which takes about 18-24 months), and then register to practice as an EN through application to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. Annual fees for the diploma range from about $15,000 up to $21,500.
This entitles them to work under the direction of a registered nurse (RN), across a range of clinical settings including primary care and hospitals. According to nursingcourses.net.au an EN can expect a typical annual salary of $50,000 – $67,000.
Many ENs go on to become RNs – this means another two years of full-time study for a Bachelor of Nursing and tuition fees of $12,000 to $20,000. And more than 800 hours of clinical exposure. When they are fully qualified and registered they can expect to earn between $58,000 and $92,000.
It doesn’t sound super appealing, does it?
I know a 20-something woman currently upskilling from EN to RN and it’s not for the faint-hearted. Like most of us, she has to work, so is combining her study with part-time work at her local hospital.
Every semester she has to take several weeks of unpaid leave from her job for the privilege of clinical placement (even though she is already working as a nurse in a busy Sydney hospital). She doesn’t get paid a cent for this – in fact it costs her money in lost wages. She even has to pay for a uniform, and last weekend had to fork out $132 to have a mask fitted and officially certified.
That’s the going rate for students – if you are already working in the system you have to fork out $88. She had to pay for a flu vaccine, because that’s also a condition of placement.
The facility she is placed at gets a free pair of hands for the duration of her visit.
She was telling me the other day about a colleague, a single mum who is trying hard to upskill and has used up all of her annual and personal leave to cover her clinical placement. It’s probably touch and go whether she will actually make it to the finish line given the financial burden. Another nurse lost for no good reason.
If the government truly wants to fix the workforce shortage then they might want to start looking at the ready-set-go line, rather than halfway through when they stumble before or at the finish line where our nurses are dropping like flies. This is a profession that cannot be replaced with technology, but one that should be carefully tended to with the utmost of respect.
If my friend was a builder or a plumber or an electrician she would be getting paid to train on the job. She would have access to subsidised training and financial assistance. And she would stand to earn a damn sight more than she will at the end of her nursing training.
So I ask her why, knowing what is ahead of her, does she want to be a nurse. She doesn’t hesitate.
“It’s the patients, it’s the families and it’s the knowledge I am making a difference.”
She says this even after a few years on the job, where she has earned little, suffered injuries at the hands of violent patients such as burns and bruises (one of her colleagues had to have her face stitched up three days before her wedding after a patient threw a plate at her face), and struggled hard when patient/nurse ratios spun out of control.
It’s probably why most nurses get up every day. The will is there a thousand times over.
It’s just not good enough. If we want a workforce that will meet the healthcare needs of our future we have to stop now and really think about how we value our nurses, how we entice them into the profession and how we look after them while they train.
Of course, we have to look after them beyond that, but to build a profession on such shaky foundations is hardly a good start.
Minister Kearney was a nurse once. So she knows. And she should be moving heaven and earth to do something about it.