Media Release
10
November 2005
Too little too late: Patient profession out of patience
The
Australian Government's response to the 2002 Senate Inquiry into
Nursing (The Patient Profession: Time for Action), shows
it is turning a blind eye to the profession at a time of crisis,
according to Australia's peak nursing body, the Australian Nursing
Federation.
ANF federal secretary Jill Iliffe said nurses had waited 40 months
for the Government's response, only to find it was refusing to
take responsibility for the report's key recommendations, leaving
it largely up to state and territory governments, nursing organisations
and individual employers.
'Despite strong recommendations to the contrary, the Howard Government
has failed to commit to any significant new measures to remedy
the problems facing the nursing profession and its development
at a time of national and international nursing shortages,' Ms
Iliffe said.
'Particularly offensive is the fact that the report delivers:
- No chief nursing officer
- No commitment to wage parity between aged care and acute care nurses
- No improved mechanism for determining nursing university places
- No money targeted for nursing research
- No funding to develop advanced mental health nursing courses
- No national nursing recruitment strategy
- No support for family-friendly employment practices
- No national reporting system for violence and aggression toward nurses
- No support for OH&S practices to protect nurses from violence in their workplaces; such as supporting the prosecution of violent offenders; and ensuring nurses do not work alone in areas of high or uncertain risk.
'The
case for these measures has been well and truly established,
not only through this Senate Inquiry, but also through other
inquiries, including the National Review of Nursing Education,
Our Duty of Care, and the Hogan Review of Aged Care.
'All studies point to the need to develop a highly skilled and
sustainable nursing workforce, through the immediate implementation
of measures such as those outlined in the 2002 Senate report.
Of course, doing so requires additional funding, but at a time
of national and international nursing shortages, the community
expects their governments to dig that much deeper to give nurses
the resources they need to provide high quality nursing care
to the Australian people,' Ms Iliffe said.
The
ANF, representing 145,000 members, is the professional and industrial
voice for nurses in Australia.
Ged Kearney, Assistant Federal Secretary 0417 053 322
Victoria Gilmore, Federal Policy Officer 0409 221 699