Professional News 2007

August 2007

ICN survey results no surprise for nurses in Australia

LNurses ‘love their work but hate the job’ is the key message from the International Council of Nurses (ICN) 2007 Global Health Care Survey. This survey looked at nurse’s perceptions of health care, the nursing profession and their role in today’s society. The results come as no surprise to nurses in Australia. While over 50% of nurses say they enjoy their work, only 25% consider working conditions to be positive.

This survey, conducted by market research firm Consensus Research Group, explored the views of nurses on current and future health care issues through input from 1,000 telephone interviews across ten countries and an online survey. While the online survey results are still pending, the telephone interview findings have been released. Nurses in all ICN member countries, including Australia, were able to participate through the online link to the survey, which offered the questionnaire in seven languages – English, Spanish, French, Japanese, German, Turkish and Chinese.

In general, results found that nurses are satisfied with their role in health care, with three out of four nurses feeling their satisfaction will continue or improve in the future. Nearly 60% of nurses consider health care has improved in the last decade. Positive aspects of the job centre on good working relationships with doctors and mutual respect.

The most frequently cited negative aspects of the job were: too little time to care for patients, too much work, being short staffed, low salaries and poor working conditions. Nurses assigned low satisfaction scores to the extent to which they can influence government policy.

Interestingly, the role of nursing associations in providing standards, education, information and compensation was ranked higher than their role in influencing government policy.

Key future issues identified were: better salaries, more time with patients, better training and education, better nurse:patient ratios, better working conditions and access to continuing education.

Overwhelmingly, survey results indicated that nurses want the time and resources to care but do not have the workplace and working conditions to do it.

The Global Health Care Survey reinforced ICN’s message, that positive practice environments = quality care. This platform, for International Nurses Day, emphasised that unhealthy work environments weaken performance, alienate nurses and drive them away from specific work settings or from the nursing profession itself while positive workplaces support excellence, attract and retain nurses, and positively affect both patient outcomes and nurse satisfaction.

These positive practice environments are what we need and continue to work for so that nurses in Australia can love not only their work but their jobs also.

Julianne Bryce
ANF Federal Professional Officer