Media Release
18
July 2005
More nursing undergraduate places needed
Research
in the current issue of the Medical Journal of Australia confirms
the need for the Australian Government to get really serious
about nursing numbers and provide additional places in undergraduate
and pre-enrolment courses for registered and enrolled nursing.
The research, Baby Boomer doctors and nurses: Demographic change
and transitions to retirement, uses data from ABS Census Surveys
(1986, 1991, 1996, 2001) and shows that if the baby boomer cohort
of nurses leaves the workforce at the same rate as previous generations,
all but a handful will have retired within the next 15 years.
The research found that 30% of nurses were aged over 40 years
in 1986 - by 2001 it was 60%.
'I have been warning the Federal Government for the past six
years about the impending issues for the future nursing workforce,'
ANF Federal Secretary Jill Iliffe said. 'Despite the fact the
recently released AIHW nursing workforce statistics showing there
was a 5% increase in the number of FTE nurses between 2001 and
2003, the average age continued to increase - being 43.1 in 2001
compared with 40.3 in 1997.
'In the 2004 federal budget, the Australian Government allocated
1600 new undergraduate nursing places over four years from July
2004, that is, an additional 400 places each year. These places
are in addition to the 537 by 2007 allocated to rural universities
announced by Minister Nelson in the 2003 federal budget.
'However, the Government's own figures show this is not nearly
enough. The recently released report by the Australian Health
Workforce Advisory Committee, The Australian Nursing Workforce:
An overview of workforce planning 2001-2004, said that for supply
to meet demand, between 10,182 and 12,270 new graduate nurses
are required to enter the workforce in 2006, and between 10,712
and 13,483 in 2010. Currently, less than 5,000 nurses graduate
each year. It takes three years to educate a registered nurse,
and even longer for them to gain specialist qualifications.
'There are plenty of people wanting to undertake nursing, but
just not enough places for them. Figures from the Australian
Vice-Chancellors Committee showed that 2,716 eligible nursing
applicants missed out on an undergraduate nursing place last
year - this represents about 20% of applicants.
'For there to be an adequate supply of nurses in the future we
need the additional places to be around 1,000 per year. The ANF
is calling on the Government to fund these additional places.
'With large budget surpluses, the Government needs to start spending
some money on undergraduate nursing places. Each additional place
costs only $3840 per year,' Ms Iliffe said.
Undergraduate
nursing course commencements and completions 1993-2001
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Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Nursing Labour Force 2001, Canberra 2002
Eligible
but unsuccessful applicants for undergraduate nursing courses
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Source: Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee 2005
Further
information
Australian Health Workforce Advisory Committee, The Australian
Nursing Workforce - An overview of workforce planning 2001-2004,
AHWAC Report 2004.2, Sydney.
Commonwealth of Australia, 2002, The patient profession: Time
for action, Report on the Inquiry into Nursing, AGPS, Canberra.
Commonwealth of Australia , 2002, Our duty of care: National
Review of Nursing Education, Commonwealth of Australia, AGPS,
Canberra.
The
ANF, representing 145,000 members, is the professional and industrial
voice for nurses in Australia.
Media
inquiries:
Jill Iliffe, ANF Federal Secretary: 0419 576 590
Ged Cowin, ANF Assistant Federal Secretary: 0417 053 322
Heather Witham, ANF Federal Communications Officer: 0417 359
907