20 January 2009

Nurses. For you. For life. campaign

1.     Slow release of health training places is more bad news and more proof the piecemeal approach to the nurse shortage must end

2.     This latest problem follows last month’s news about poor university take up  and clinical placement shortage

Today’s news (The Australian, 20/1/09) that only a fraction of the health training places promised for 2008 have been released is further proof the piecemeal approach to dealing with the nurse shortage must end and it is time an urgent national summit of stakeholders is called, the Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) said today.

This latest bad news for the health sector, from the Community Services & Health Industry Skills Council, follows last month’s revelation that universities only took up 200 of the additional 500 undergraduate nursing places, made available by the Commonwealth Government in 2008, because of clinical placement pressures.

In October 2008 the QNU launched its 12-month Nurses. For You. For Life. campaign, aimed at finally forcing governments and health and aged care employers to properly address issues such as these before nurse shortages reach crisis levels in the next few years. It is estimated that Queensland alone will require an extra 14,000 nurses by 2014.

The campaign started with a $500,000 Statewide television and newspaper advertising campaign, aimed at getting the community, governments and health and aged care employers to focus on the issue and then getting governments and employers to commit to developing a comprehensive workforce plan, which ensures we have enough nurses to run our health and aged care services.

QNU acting secretary, Beth Mohle, said evidence of how serious the situation is becoming just keeps mounting.

“Based on population growth projections Queensland will need at least another 14,000 nurses by 2014 and 22,000 by 2020. Unfortunately, as this latest information again shows, there is no proper workforce plan in place, at a State or national level, to achieve anything like those numbers. And let’s not beat around the bush here. That means services will close, others will be compromised and much-needed new services will struggle to find staff.

“The fact that a discussion paper on collecting national clinical placement data was only released in December 2008, after years of grappling with the nurse shortage, shows just how disorganised the approach to the problem has been.

“This latest information on the poor take up of nursing courses in the vocational education and training sector is just devastating, especially with the new academic year due to start in the next few weeks and tertiary placement offers being made to, and currently being considered by, last year’s school leavers.

“It is time for the Federal Government to call a national summit of healthcare stakeholders, including governments, unions, employers, educators and even the media, so a comprehensive workforce plan can be developed - and developed urgently.