It seems South Africa and the UK are not the only places suffering a nursing haemorrhage: Australia’s New South Wales state is seeing an exodus of 6 500 nurses and midwives annually, hampering the government’s attempts to boost the number of staff in wards, even as it promises 1 200 new jobs across the state.
Nurses and midwives in NSW will be guaranteed a minimum number of staff on every hospital shift after the state government agreed last week to enshrine the provisions in the next collective award agreement, which expires on 30 June.
Premier Chris Minns said the reforms would start in emergency departments from early 2024 to help reduce waiting times, but conceded the government urgently needed to address the 12% of the nursing workforce leaving the NSW public system each year, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Year-on-year, 6 500 nurses are leaving the profession, quitting in big numbers or reducing their hours,” he said. “We’ve got a mountain to climb.”
Health Minister Ryan Park said the agreement would require one nurse for every patient in emergency departments, a win for nurses who took to the streets in 2022 demanding mandated ratios.
Staff-to-patient ratios for other wards will differ based on the area of care and are designed to ensure there are enough staff to care for every patient on any given shift.
Andrew Norton, a higher education professor at the Australian National University, said about 5 000 students graduate from nursing courses at NSW universities each year.
“It is unlikely that new graduates alone could fill the gaps created by (6 500) resignations,” he said.
The expertise lost by departing nurses and midwives put added pressure on graduates entering the system, said Amanda Wilson, a professor of nursing at the University of Technology Sydney.
“The problem is we don’t have the senior staff to support them; it’s this escalating cycle where you have junior nurses promoted to senior roles they’re not ready for,” she said. “People aren’t staying … because the work is too hard.”
The 1 200 additional nurses represent about a 2% increase to the overall workforce, which totalled 54 000 nurses employed by NSW Health as of June this year.
Nurses and midwives had previously pushed for mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios with widespread industrial action throughout 2022.
Shaye Candish, general secretary of the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, said the agreement announced last Thursday would provide reassurance to nurses, midwives and patients across the state, but the union intended to “maintain pressure on the government to invest further in the workforce”.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Minimum nurse-to-patient ratios cut mortality risk by up to 11% — Australia study
UK community nurses leaving their ‘stressful and heavy workload’
Massive UK nursing shortage sucks in Kenyan, South African and Zimbabwean