workforce
that predicted loss of about 25 per cent
of nurses who responded they were
likely or very likely to leave the industry,”
Thomas says. “One of the most dramatic
and consistent responses from nurses and
midwives was the overwhelming workloads
being experienced. This is particularly what
the ANMF has found in aged care.
“It’s not uncommon for one (RN) to
be caring for up to 100 or more nursing
home residents, many of them with
complex care needs.
“These frontline nurses and assistants in
nursing are having to cope with excessive
workloads, [a lack of] nationally mandated
staff ratios, and ongoing attacks on their
daily working conditions – and it’s clearly
taking its toll on them.”
One survey participant working as an RN
in aged care had been in the profession for
40 years but had become disillusioned with
the system in general and lost motivation. “I
was with my previous employer for 12 years
and got treated very badly and so were a lot
of RNs and we were told we were old wood
and need to move on,” the nurse said.
Recruitment is good at the moment,
Holland says, but added people aged 45
and over are doing fewer and fewer hours,
which might indicate intent to move out
of the profession. “The danger is [the
age people start doing that] might start
creeping down into the early 40s, late 30s,
as people in those generations see the
ones above them leaving the profession,
feeling undervalued and disheartened by
what they’ve done in terms of how the
organisation supports them.”
Although jobs may be filled in the short
term, Monash’s Holland suspects if there
are no organisational changes and some
factors affecting nurses worsen, there will
be an increasing exodus down through the
ages. “It might affect recruitment of highquality people,” he warns.
He says if the profession is increasingly
being perceived as devalued, fewer capable
people may be inclined to pursue it.
Monash Business School’s Australian
Consortium for Research on Employment
and Work has undertaken the survey
roughly every three years since 2011.
When comparing the most recent survey
and previous ones, Holland says, there
was deterioration across all comparative
indicators, adding investments in the
nursing workforce and better management
practices are necessary.
He says there are issues within the
control of stakeholders that can be
looked at now, including ratios, work
intensification and the extra pressures
being put on nurses.
Holland acknowledges that there is a
culture in Australia of bringing in nurses
from overseas, but says it’s still necessary
to retain the quality nurses already here.
“That’s a better return on investment
than simply letting them go in their early
50s or late 40s and replacing them down
the track,” he says.
The ANMF’s Thomas says if the Turnbull
Government refused to overturn the
funding cuts to the aged-care sector,
the country would continue to see more
and more nurses walking away from the
profession, with fewer and fewer graduates
coming through to replace them. ■
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