Archived Media Releases: 22 October 2008

More evidence of nursing workforce strain – now nurses need action

Further evidence of the inadequacies of national nursing workforce planning have emerged with the release of the Australian Health Workforce Institute (AHWI) report, the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) said today.

Nurses are being driven out of the workforce by excessive workloads, inadequate staffing and a failure to properly remunerate and value the pivotal role they play in the delivery of quality health care, ANF Federal Secretary Ged Kearney said.

“The report is welcome because it does continue to highlight the issues the ANF has been raising for many years: that the nursing shortage is acute; that nurses are leaving the health system because of the conditions they face; and there has been a lack of coordinated action over a long period to address national nursing workforce planning. This has created a vicious cycle of not enough nurses being available to provide health care to the community, which causes nurses to burnout and leave the profession."

Ms Kearney said it was time for decisive action, not only to address the nursing shortage, but also to address the reasons nurses were leaving the profession and failing to complete courses.

“Up until now we have seen a piecemeal approach in addressing the nursing and health workforce shortages, we are at a critical time with health and health workforce reform on the national agenda presenting an opportunity to work together to develop a national approach.”

“It is not enough to keep talking about the problem. What we need now is action from all governments to ensure that the nursing and midwifery workforce is better supported so nurses continue to enter the profession and stay there. Nurses and midwives are central to the health and wellbeing of the entire community – sorting out the nursing workforce problem must be a national priority.”

Media Contacts
Ged Kearney, Federal Secretary 0417 053 322
Lee Thomas, Assistant Federal Secretary, 0419 576 590
Libby Muir, Communications Officer, 0413 834 979

The ANF, representing nearly 170,000 members, is the professional and industrial voice for nurses and midwives in Australia.