Premier Chris Minns has conceded the government urgently needs to address the 6500 nurses leaving the NSW public health system each year.
An exodus of 6500 nurses and midwives a year stands to jeopardise the NSW government’s attempts to boost the number of staff on hospital wards, even as it promises 1200 new jobs across the state.
Premier Chris Minns and Health Minister Ryan Park have struck an agreement with the nurses’ union to enshrine minimum staffing levels on NSW hospital wards.Premier Chris Minns said the reforms would start in emergency departments from early next year to help reduce waiting times, but conceded the government urgently needed to address the 12 per cent of the nursing workforce leaving the NSW public system each year.
Health Minister Ryan Park said the agreement would require one nurse for every patient in emergency departments,Staff-to-patient ratios for other wards will differ based on the area of care and are designed to ensure there are enough staff to care for every patient on any given shift.Andrew Norton, a higher education professor at the Australian National University, said about 5000 students graduate from nursing courses at NSW universities each year.
“The problem is we don’t have the senior staff to support them; it’s this escalating cycle where you have junior nurses promoted to senior roles they’re not ready for,” she said. “People aren’t staying on the floor because the work is too hard.”The 1200 additional nurses represent about a 2 per cent increase to the overall workforce, which totalled 54,000 nurses employed by NSW Health as of June this year.
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