Aged Care Insite Issue 105 | Feb-Mar 2018 | Page 15

industry & policy care workers – what do you hope to see come to fruition in that space? What I know about nurses, and in particular aged care nurses, is that the most important thing to them is their patients. But if workloads are out of control, you can’ t give quality care. Not only can’ t you give quality care, you can’ t look after yourself, and you burn out. And we all know what happens if people get injured. It can be dire, so if you are so busy that unfortunately you get injured, then that can have terrible consequences.

We do know the aged care system is under pressure at the moment and needs a great deal of attention, and there’ s been tinkering around the edges here and there with funding, and always bits and pieces of changes, but it really needs a good, hard look at the whole system and how it works.

I’ ve dealt with the issue of workloads around patient ratios – there are many, many ways in other states that we can set up workloads that make life safe for nurses, and that’ s really all we want to do. I would be, I think, a good voice in parliament because I really understand all the permutations and combinations, if you like, of how to go about making change so that workloads are manageable. And aged care – boy oh boy, we really need to look at it very carefully in aged care.

What are some other healthcare or aged care issues you hope to work on should you have a voice in parliament? When I was at the nurses’ union, we decided we would really do some work in aged care, and the first thing we did was to go out to the nurses and ask them. We spent about six months just travelling around the country and talking to the nurses themselves, asking them what they would want their union to do. We were surprised – we thought the first thing would be wages and conditions, but what aged care nurses told us was that they wanted to be respected for the work they did. It’ s an incredibly valuable, important role in our community, and at that time there were some negative stories coming out about what happens in nursing homes.

We started a national campaign called Because We Care. It looked at respecting the qualifications that aged care nurses have, respecting the hard work they did and their workloads, and respecting the fact that nurses who do work in aged care are as qualified and experienced as nurses working in other sectors. So it was a lot of promotional advocacy for the aged care sector and nurses working in aged care. That was a really fantastic campaign I think. Of course, we need decent pay and decent conditions for nurses in aged care. All of those things are important. Things outside of that are to make sure federal funding is appropriate, and to make sure the people who own and run aged care facilities do it in an ethical and honest manner, that our vulnerable, elderly citizens are cared for in a very holistic and careful way.

What advice would you give to other nurses who might be interested in taking a more active role in workforce issues or in policy or government? I would say don’ t underestimate your skills as a nurse. Nurses are the most wonderful people. They have organisational skills, they have communication skills, they have assessment skills, they are quick to make decisions, they are quick to respond, and they’ re also really caring and have a lot of empathy with the communities and people they care for.

Often nurses say,“ Oh, I’ m just a nurse.” You hear this a lot. Well, every time I hear that I say,“ You are a super person if you are a nurse. Never, ever say you are just a nurse.” Say it proudly. It’ s a wondrous thing. All the skills I’ ve learned through my career in nursing, I am really pulling on every single one of them right now to get me through a campaign for a federal election, I can tell you.

I think nurses are wonderful people and they need to have a little more... not self-confidence, because I think nurses are confident, but just a belief that they really can do anything, because they are some of the most qualified, experienced and empathetic people.

The by-election is to be held on St Patrick’ s Day and Kearney is an Irish surname, so are you hoping that’ s a fortuitous sign? I think it is. You know, another thing I love about nurses is that they have incredible senses of humour, and where you can find a laugh in anything, of course you have to, otherwise you’ d spend your life crying.

So when it was called on St Patrick’ s Day, oh, I roared laughing. I am, of course, of Irish background and the number of four leaf clovers that started pouring over the emojis on the phone was absolutely lovely to me.

So yeah, I am taking it as a good sign. St Patrick’ s looking out for me. ■

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