As a nurse, I’m all for improving our pubic health system. I’m glad Kevin Rudd is talking about how we can fix our hospitals.

But I really wonder how changing the public health funding arrangement is going to tackle the biggest problem on the ground as I see it: the shortage of nurses.

Acute care facilities across NSW are suffering chronic staff shortages.

Nurses are leaving the system in droves; those who stay in the job are getting older – mid to late 40s on average – and operating under very difficult circumstances.

Shifts are getting longer, nurses are taking on more duties and are increasingly pulled away from direct patient care at the coalface to take on administrative responsibilities.

While most nurses love their jobs and get great satisfaction out of patient care, there’s no doubt the job of nursing has become more difficult and stressful over the past decade. Many nurses simply figure they can make more money in an easier work environment by changing careers.

So my questions to the Federal Government are these:

• How will your takeover plan bring more nurses into frontline patient care roles?

• How will you make sure our rural and remote hospitals get the medical specialists they need in their communities?

• How will you support nurses to give our patients the top quality health care they deserve?

I know that the Federal Government’s proposal is in its early days and there are many more details to come. But to me, these are the basics.

Whoever’s managing the books, we need properly resourced hospitals and adequate numbers of nurses to ensure better health outcomes.

I currently work in aged care, at the Wallsend facility near Newcastle, which recently beat a State Government attempt at privatisation.

Aged care has been federally funded for some 13 years now. It is a complex system which means facilities like Wallsend effectively have two bosses, the state and federal governments. That’s not so bad in itself; and the health care standards we have developed in NSW over the years, relating to staff ratios and expertise, greatly benefit our residents.

But I believe that whatever the funding arrangement, nurses are going to have to take an active and vocal role in this debate and stand up for what we know to be important in our health system.

There’s no doubt our ageing population is going to place enormous pressure on aged and acute care services. Nurses will bear the brunt of that. If we can boost nurse numbers and improve work conditions for nurses, so that nursing becomes a better job, a great career choice, we will go a long way to improving our public hospitals.
 

Louise Howell is a Registered Nurse