The nursing shortage is an international problem, and safe staffing
issues are making things tense between health care facilities and
nurses. In Sydney, nurses are campaigning for major reforms in the New
South Wales (NSW) public health system. Nurses are planning to protest
at Sydney's Liverpool Hospital as part of a larger series of rallies
across the Australian state.
The New South Wales Nurses Association (NSWNA) says that member nurses
working at the hospital plan to rally at lunchtime on Wednesday to
demand minimum nurse-to-patient ratios, otherwise known as safe staffing
laws, that improve the quality and safety of patient care. Brett Holmes,
NSWNA general secretary, said that public hospital and community health
care nurses have backed the reform. If implemented, these reforms would
be the largest overhaul of the health care system in decades.
The NSWNA says that nursing shortages and poor skill have combined to
cause harm to the public health system, putting patient safety at risk,
for too long. The association wants a one-to-four nurse to patient ratio
for most metropolitan hospitals as part of the new award, after the old
award expired in mid summer. At home, many U.S. states have instituted
safe staffing ratios. the California Nurses Association/National Nurses
Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) organized to support a one-to-three
nurse to patient ratio in the state of California.
Holmes said that the one-to-four ratio is modeled on the system in place
in Victoria hospitals, where the ratio has worked well, helping to
alleviate the overuse of nurses and improving patient care. "The
overwhelming feedback from NSW nurses is that ratios, with the right
skill mix, are the way to get hospital management to fill vacancies and
provide the staffing levels required to provide quality, safe patient
care," he said.
Holmes expects about 100 nurses to rally on Wednesday and said that
further protests are due to take place at Westmead Hospital and John
Hunter Hospital on Thursday, followed by St George, Gosford and Royal
North Shore hospitals on Friday.
The NSWNA also put in a claim for a wage increase of five percent per
annum and a one percent lift in superannuation. The Association plans to
campaign for the new agreement with advertising, public events, and
meetings with state and federal politicians.