Competition for nurses is heating up, with some employers offering six weeks’ holidays as major hospital operators warn that any significant increases in pay and entitlements, or restrictions on supply, will affect them greatly. In nursing, an ageing workforce, maldistribution of staff and little increase in productivity or clinical roles has created a fractious environment where new graduates often take jobs elsewhere while some employers continue to seek nurses overseas. In an effort to maintain its supply, Queensland’s Palaszczuk Labor government is finalising an enterprise bargaining agreement that will deliver nurses a 2.5 per cent pay rise backdated to April and another 2.5 per cent in April next year. The state is also opening up to 1000 additional graduate nurse positions every year to retain more young staff. Public hospital nurses in Queensland are entitled to up to six weeks’ holiday, like their counterparts in Victoria, but nurses in NSW receive only four weeks. Changes in hospital management structures have altered the manner in which nurses, and agency nurses, are paid. Private hospital networks Ramsay and Healthscope have warned that nursing labour is their biggest operating cost and any major changes to remuneration or availability — including access to overseas-trained nurses — will make services more expensive and potentially unviable.
