Nursing had become “too dangerous” for Catherine Taylor before she left the profession. Ms Taylor resigned in April from her job as a nurse in an acute mental health care unit in south-west Sydney. “It was just getting too dangerous. I felt we were getting a lot of new graduates who were inexperienced and undergraduates who have done a week’s mental health training,” she said. “This led to inexperienced staff dealing with highly psychotic patients who would either escalate the situation or not know how to handle it and not report a patient who was suicidal because they didn’t want to appear incompetent. “That placed a lot of stress on senior staff and put them at risk.” A new study of nurses and midwives’ wellbeing by the Monash Business School has found almost a third of Australia’s nurses are thinking of leaving the profession because they are overworked, undervalued and in danger of burning out. The survey “What Nurses & Midwives Want: Findings from the National Survey on Workplace Climate and Well-being” also found a quarter of those surveyed reported they were either likely or very likely to leave the profession. Researchers said there is a looming shortage, with the majority of the nursing and midwifery workforce in Australia already aged 47 years or older and set to retire in the next decade.
October 6, 2016
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federations and the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia Central Operations are facing off over a s.739 (Application to deal with a dispute).
October 6, 2016
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and Anglicare SA Limited are arm wrestling a s.739 (Application to deal with a dispute) before Commissioner Platt in Hearing Room 6.1 – Level 6 in Adelaide.
October 6, 2016
Sir Charles Gardner Hospital has been served with a s.372 (Application to deal with other contravention disputes) by staffer Banda.
October 6, 2016
Bellambi Neighbourhoos Centre Inc is up against a s.394 (Application for unfair dismissal) to be heard before Commissioner Jones in Court 2 – Level 6 in Melbourne.
October 4, 2016
Resident doctors have threatened a nationwide strike in pursuit of demands for what their union says are “safer rosters and safer hours”. New Zealand’s resident doctors – ranging from junior house officers through to senior trainee specialists – are at the heart of medical care in public hospitals. Strikes by them cause major disruption. The planned strike will be a complete withdrawal of labour from 7am on Tuesday October 18 until 7am on Thursday October 20. All 20 district health boards will be affected by the action by members of the Resident Doctors Association.
October 4, 2016
THE “urgent” review into remote nurse safety ordered after the death of Gayle Woodford is still to see the light of day. More than six months have passed since Ms Woodford was allegedly lured from her home late at night, abducted in an ambulance and then brutally killed and buried near the South Australian community of Fregon. The death sparked outrage across Australia among remote nurses, who demanded better safety conditions. Within days the Northern Territory Health Department began what then-Chief Minister Adam Giles said was an “urgent and priority review” to address Territory nurse concerns. One of these was the lack of GPS devices in ambulances, which in Ms Woodford’s SA case helped lead police to her body and alleged killer. Still not a single device has been fitted to remote Territory ambulances. Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation NT branch senior organiser Angela Phillips said the review had stalled.
October 4, 2016
A BULLDOGS fan who suffered a heart attack at Saturday’s MCG blockbuster may not have survived if not for his determination to see their Grand Final berth. The ground’s ready access to a defibrillator and the quick-thinking of an off-duty paramedic are being credited with saving 64-year-old Rob McCarthy’s life. The retirement village caretaker slumped in his seat without warning at 5.06pm, an off-duty paramedic sitting nearby finding Mr McCarthy had no pulse and dragging him into the aisle to perform CPR which continued for about fifteen minutes.
