Trust a nurse to make a great first impression.

Ged Kearney, President of the ACTU, didn’t disappoint in her opening address to the ACTU Congress 2012.

Proudly flaunting her union background, Ged spoke eloquently about first joining the nurses’ union in Melbourne as a young nurse and taking industrial action in the ’80s around shiftwork.

This year’s theme of the ACTU Congress is Secure Jobs. Better Future. Around 40% of workers are engaged as casuals, on short term contracts, in labour hire or as “independent” contractors.

Ged outlined the many challenges facing the union movement today, not least of which is trying to organise a “collective movement in an individualistic age” while still making sure that the most vulnerable workers are heard amidst the noise of “conservative orthodoxy” being pushed by the Liberal Party.

The elephant in the room, HSU East’s recent corruption and governance issues, was also discussed.

Ged, along with outgoing ACTU Secretary Jeff Lawrence and incoming Secretary-elect Dave Oliver, was clear about “zero tolerance” for misappropriation of funds or corruption.

The message was clear: the trust with union members can never be broken.

Nevertheless, the day ended on a high, with the Equal Pay campaign by ASU and the aged care Because We Care campaign being lauded – workforces largely made up of women.

All in all it was a great start to a Congress that will tackle issues from fostering a younger generation of union members to equality for women in unions.

Watch this space.

Image credit: Michael Clayton-Jones

Don’t forget our International Nurses Day contest - the best photo of nurses celebrating will win a two-night stay in the Hunter Valley.

Remember to sign the NSWNA Recency of Practice Petition!

The picnic for aged care nurses and their supporters is this Friday, 11.30am-1.30pm in Hyde Park in central Sydney. Act Now for Better Pay  will be sending buses from all over Sydney, so ring today if you want to hop onboard!

Rashmi, a young AIN originally from Nepal, gives a strong voice to the reasons for the picnic – nurses in aged care are usually rushed off their feet and have very poor nurse to patient ratios which can compromise the quality of the care they give.

Have you ever worked in aged care? A ratio of fourteen patients to one nurse – is that unusual?

Image credit: NSWNA

Don’t forget our International Nurses Day contest - the best photo of nurses celebrating will win a two-night stay in the Hunter Valley.

Remember to sign the NSWNA Recency of Practice Petition!

Population changes and specialisation of nursing services have led to increasingly stressful service demands on community nurses, according to a recent article in The Lamp. This is especially evident in an area like the New South Wales north coast.

The North Coast is the fastest growing rural health service in NSW. Its population grew by around seven percent from 2006 to 2011 and is not expected to slow any time soon. In fact, it is expected to increase by 1.2 percent each year between now and 2016! Yet nurse numbers in local community health services have stayed roughly the same for at least 15 years.

Are you a community nurse – on the North Coast or anywhere at all in NSW? How are you coping with the increasing demand?

Anne Pudney, a Clinical Nurse Specialist and President of the Tweed Valley Community Nurses branch of the NSWNA, said adding to staffing issues is the rapid ageing of the population, with people over 65 expected to make up almost one quarter of the Northern NSW Local Health District population in five years.

“Our award says we are entitled to a reasonable workload, but overall the staffing arrangements are far from reasonable,” Anne said. “Our work assignments are increasing, yet there has been no increase in FTEs (full time equivalent) in mental health in the 15 years I’ve been here. It’s the same for child and family nursing services, despite extra work due to the introduction of Families First and other government initiatives.

“Services have become more specialised, which has also increased the demand for staffing. When I first moved here we didn’t have Hospital in the Home and nowhere near the amount of aged care we have now.”

The NSWNA  has been meeting with community members around the state as part of a campaign called Take Control of Your Day: There’s No Reason to Wait.

Anne Pudney suspects the public rarely notice inadequate staffing in community health because nurses have tended to take up the slack, with little protest.

“Many of our nurses are part of a rural community. They are well known to most people so there is no anonymity.

“They are likely to give up their lunch break in order to race down to see Mr Smith and his ulcer, partly because they know they will run into Mr Smith’s wife or daughter in the supermarket.

“On top of that you have the historical culture of nurses – we fix things but we are not so good at looking after ourselves.

“The Award gives nurses a starting point for standing up for their rights but in practice it is not that simple.

“The higher up the management chain you go, the more it is about saving money rather than proper patient care.”

We want to hear your experiences. Please share them with us!

Image credit: NSWNA

Don’t forget our International Nurses Day contest - the best photo of nurses celebrating will win a two-night stay in the Hunter Valley.

Remember to sign the NSWNA Recency of Practice Petition!

It’s almost International Nurses Day (Florence Nightingale’s birthday) - and lots of workplaces will be celebrating early today. This year’s theme is Closing the Gap – From Evidence to Action. And the evidence shows clearly that there is a direct link between registered nurse (RN) numbers and patient outcomes, which is why the NSWNA continues to campaign for the implementation of satisfactory nurse-patient ratios.

Nurse Uncut is celebrating our day with a super contest. Send us your photo of nurses celebrating International Nurses Day and you could win two nights at Harrigan’s Irish Pub in the lovely village of Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley! Also included in the prize is admission to the magical Hunter Valley Gardens nearby.

International Nurses Day is tomorrow, Saturday May 12, so not much time to plan your celebration and your photo, if you haven’t already done so. Of course, you could always have a delayed [aka staged] celebration next week! You could take a picture of two or 20 nurses celebrating their day – whether it’s with a cake on the ward, a meal together with colleagues after your shift is over or something completely different…

The winner will be the photo which attracts the most ‘Likes’ on the Nurse Uncut Facebook page. Second and third prize winners will receive an Elsevier book voucher worth $150!

Email your photo to us at admin@nurseuncut.com.au. Photos will also be uploaded to our Nurse Uncut Flickr Stream. Make sure that everyone who appears in the photo fills out a publication consent form (ie. they don’t mind their image appearing on our websites and potentially in The Lamp magazine).

Don’t forget to tell your friends and encourage them to enter too. Photos will start appearing on I Support Nurses on Facebook from May 12 until the closing date, May 25. Don’t worry, we’ll give you plenty of reminders to take a look and vote.

The small print:
The contest will close at midnight (Sydney time) on Friday, May 25, 2012.
Winners will be announced on Tuesday, May 29, 2012.
This contest is only valid for nurses working in NSW, Australia.

First prize: Two nights midweek (Sunday to Thursday) accommodation in a newly refurbished studio guestroom at Harrigan’s Irish Pub & Accommodation in Pokolbin, including a hot buffet breakfast and dinner to the value of $100. Plus two Adult tickets for entry to Hunter Valley Gardens.  Total prize package valued at over $600.

Second and third prizes: Gift voucher valued at $150 from Elsevier Australia Pty Ltd.

Image credit: NSWNA

Remember to sign the NSWNA Recency of Practice Petition!

Next Friday, 18 May, the Time to Act for Better Pay campaign is throwing a picnic in Hyde Park in the middle of Sydney for aged care nurses and their friends, family and supporters (that includes all nurses). This is part of the 2012 Aged Care Enterprise Agreement Campaign.

The main aged care employers’ representative, the Aged Care Association Australia – NSW (ACAA), will be holding their annual congress in the Sheraton on the Park hotel across the road from our picnic. Let’s send them a message about better pay for the aged care workforce!

The current Aged Care (For Profit) Agreement expires on 30 June 2012.  Negotiations for a new model agreement are underway. On 16 March, member-endorsed claims for a new agreement were provided to the ACAA. These claims are based on better pay and reward for qualifications, eg. an AIN Certificate IV pay rate.

ACAA has not yet said yes or no to these improvements. However, they have responded with changes they would like to see in a new agreement. The employer’s significant claims are:

• Remove the August Bank Holiday, also called Nurses Picnic Day.

• Reduce annual leave loading for shift workers to 17.5% (currently the Agreement provides for whichever is greater – 17.5% or weekend/penalty rates).

These changes will be strongly opposed by the NSW Nurses Association.

So we’re holding an early nurses picnic day! Bring your kids or your grandchildren – there’ll be a clown and face painting to keep them amused while the adults enjoy the light refreshments and listen to speakers, including Judith Kiedja of the NSWNA.

Tell your workmates, spread the word, and don’t forget to Like our Time to Act 4 Better Pay Facebook page, so you can keep in touch.

Image credit: NSWNA

Don’t forget our International Nurses Day contest - the best photo of nurses celebrating will win a two-night stay in the Hunter Valley.

Remember to sign the NSWNA Recency of Practice Petition!

Have you caught the Association’s latest television ad?

It’s a follow-up to commercials created during the 2010 campaign for 1:4 ratios, such as this one:

Then, when the campaign had been won, came a victory ad that reinforced how important ratios would be to nurses – and patients – in our everyday work.

Now, with funding won and more staff coming onto the wards, a new ad shows what a world of difference this makes to the mood and pace of a ward – and to the satisfaction levels of staff.

Have you seen this ad? Could you relate to it? Are ratios having an effect in your workplace?

Don’t forget to Like our ratios page on Facebook (safepatientcare): One2four the way to safe patient care. The battle may have been won but the campaign is under threat again from the O’Farrell government. Keep up to date (sign up for an occasional newsletter) on the Defend Ratios page on the NSWNA website.

Image credits: NSWNA

Don’t forget our International Nurses Day contest - the best photo of nurses celebrating will win a two-night stay in the Hunter Valley.

Remember to sign the NSWNA Recency of Practice Petition!

What can union branches at community health services do to guarantee safe staffing?

Public campaign: A community palliative care service starts a weekend on-call service for end of life care clients. As client numbers increase so does the frequency of call outs, leaving weekday nurse numbers depleted. Members decide to form a coalition with key stakeholders (clients, carers, family and a local Palliative Care Support Group) to publicly campaign for increased staffing for safe patient care.

Limit client numbers: A child and family health service has not met NSW Health home visit program benchmarks. Child and family health nurses are working hard to meet key performance indicators, however increasing birth rates and vacant positions are proving problematic. The branch agrees to see a maximum of four clients per day to ensure safe, appropriate levels of care can be provided. The branch also agrees that their community should be told why the number of visits are being reduced and ask the community for their support and understanding.

Refuse non-urgent referrals: A generalist community health service experiences increasing referrals with no additional resources. Community nurses get speeding fines while trying to visit all allocated clients and are concerned that the quality of care provided is unsatisfactory. There is no locally agreed face-to-face time ratio. Members agree that non-urgent referrals will not be accepted until a local face-to-face time ratio is developed and additional resources are provided so that a reasonable workload and safe patient care can be delivered.

Ask management to prioritise: The Department of Health reviews the use of health service vehicles. A community health service loses one car that the department decides is being under-used. With reduced access to vehicles, nurses must start earlier and finish later, working unpaid overtime to meet client care needs. The local NSWNA branch unanimously resolves that unpaid overtime will be claimed and that if management declines to pay overtime rates, nurses will no longer start early or finish late. Management would then need to prioritise which clients receive a visit and which do not.

Sydney community health meeting

Metropolitan community and community mental health members are invited to attend the Take Control of Your Day: There’s No Reason to Wait presentation on Tuesday 15 May from 5.00-6.30pm at the NSWNA office, 50 O’Dea Ave Waterloo.

This will be followed by a barbecue and Committee of Delegates meeting from 7.15pm.

Members are welcome to stay for the meeting as observers. Please RSVP by email to dmodderno@nswnurses.asn.au for catering purposes.

Image credit: NSWNA

Don’t forget our International Nurses Day contest - the best photo of nurses celebrating will win a two-night stay in the Hunter Valley.

Remember to sign the NSWNA Recency of Practice Petition!

Community nurses are planning to take greater control over staffing to ensure adequate patient care.

Working too much overtime, too busy to take meal breaks, then a staff member goes on annual leave and is not replaced – leaving you to carry the extra load with even less time for your patients.

That scenario is increasingly familiar to community health nurses not covered by the nurse-to-patient ratios won by the NSW Nurses’ Association in 2011. With patient numbers, age and acuity on the increase, understaffed nurses fear that safe patient care in the community setting is being compromised.

A NSWNA team, led by Assistant General Secretary Judith Kiejda, has been meeting with community and community mental health members around the state as part of a campaign called Take Control of Your Day: There’s No Reason to Wait.

“For too long community health has been the silent health service, with members feeling they are the poor cousin of hospitals. The time has come to get community health on the agenda and work together to redress this,” Judith said.

During their regional visits the NSWNA team gave a presentation on Award entitlements, the process of raising staffing concerns locally, and ways of developing plans to achieve safe and competent community care. They also distributed a handbook – Nurses and Midwives: Organising for Safe Patient Care – a guide to take community nurses through the process and empower them to take control of their day.

Judith says all nurses have a professional obligation to provide safe and competent patient care and to ensure that such care is not compromised by any circumstance, including unsafe staff levels.

The NSWNA handbook advises community nurses to initially raise staffing concerns with their Nurse Unit Manager or team leader and to suggest solutions where possible. If problems cannot be solved at the local level they should be referred to the next line manager.

If management still cannot resolve the issues they should be referred to a Reasonable Workload Committee (RWC), where one exists. If the committee cannot find a solution within a reasonable time then the problem becomes a grievance and there are processes within the Award to escalate unresolved staffing issues. If there is no RWC, or management can’t resolve the issue, that’s not the end of the story.

“If nurses are too short-staffed to safely and adequately meet patient care demands, then one solution is to reduce activity to meet staffing levels, such as cancelling non-urgent home visits and clinical appointments,” Judith said. “Taking the decision to reduce services away from management reinforces your commitment to safe patient care and lets them know you take your professional obligations seriously.

“Nurses should involve their local branch and NSWNA head office before commencing any action. The union will work with nurses to plan and organise a local campaign for safe patient care.”

So HOW can you get safe staffing? Read tomorrow’s blog at Nurse Uncut to get some tips!

Get the handbook

Nurses and Midwives: Organising for Safe Patient Care is a handbook that guides community nurses through the process of securing safe and reasonable staff levels.

To obtain a copy, email gensec@nswnurses.asn.au
Phone (02) 8595 1234 or 1300 367 962 from outside Sydney

Image credit: NSWNA

Don’t forget our International Nurses Day contest - the best photo of nurses celebrating will win a two-night stay in the Hunter Valley.

Remember to sign the NSWNA Recency of Practice Petition!

“As a matter of urgency, Australia has to now start rebuilding a future nursing workforce to replace current nursing staff who will be retiring over the next 15 to 20 years.”

A new report by Health Workforce Australia showing a shortage of nearly 110,000 nurses by 2025 demonstrates why all Governments must urgently invest in the nursing workforce, according to the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF).

ANF Assistant Federal Secretary Yvonne Chaperon said both State and Federal Governments must act to provide better wages, training and education and career pathways to ensure the recruitment and then retention of Australia’s nursing and midwifery workforce.

Ms Chaperon said the report, Health Workforce 2025, was “a dire prediction about the massive nursing shortage Australia faces in the future. Currently, we are experiencing a critical shortfall of nursing and midwifery staff across public and private hospitals, nursing homes and mental health facilities right across the country, particularly in rural and region areas.

“In aged care alone, 20,000 nurses are urgently required to meet the challenges of delivering quality care to Australia’s ageing population. As a matter of urgency, Australia has to now start rebuilding a future nursing workforce to replace current nursing staff who will be retiring over the next 15 to 20 years.

“We need more funded places for undergraduate nursing and midwifery courses and ensure there are more clinical placements throughout their undergraduate courses. Governments must also create new solutions to encourage qualified, trained nurses and midwives to return to the workforce.”

The ANF recently achieved a victory in its Because We Care campaign which resulted in the Gillard Government investing $1.2 billion into Australia’s under-resourced aged care workforce.

Ms Chaperon said the ANF will be heavily involved in negotiations through a Workforce Compact, developed by an independently chaired Advisory Group in consultation with the aged care sector, to ensure reforms lead to improvements in terms and conditions for nurses and assistants in nursing.

Don’t forget our International Nurses Day contest - the best photo of nurses celebrating will win a two-night stay in the Hunter Valley.

Remember to sign the NSWNA Recency of Practice Petition!