Ageing workforce sparks nurse crisis
Australia is running out of time to ease the strain on the nursing workforce, with nearly 15% of nurses retiring every five years, creating a projected cumulative exodus of 90,000 nurses by 2026, according to a report in The Australian.
Health editor, Adam Cresswell, said that a new report has found that although Australia has one of the highest ratios of nurses, at 10.2 per 1,000 population, the country’s 220,000 working nurses are also under pressure from many directions, including high rates of part time working, high drop out rates from training courses, and increased demand from an ageing population.
The report by the Australian Health Workforce Institute (AHWI) found “an unsustainable picture” for the nursing workforce.
It said failure to plan for the retirement of 90,000 nurses in the next two decades would “undoubtedly result in a serious deterioration of the quality and sustainability of our health care services”.
For the report, commissioned by workforce management company Kronos, the AHWI spent three months assessing all available data.
It found the average age of nurses increased from 40 in 1997 to 45 in 2005, and that the proportion of registered nurses aged 55 and over, increased from 11% in 1999 to 20% in 2005.
For enrolled nurses, the rate increased from 7% to 17%.
While there was a 7% increase in enrolments in undergraduate nursing courses between 2001 and 2005, for health workers generally, the increase was 15.9%.
Student drop out rates are also a problem. Previously unpublished data showed that although 8,000 nursing students began courses between 2001 and 2003, only two thirds finished.
Among enrolled nurses, the drop out rate was 66% in 2004.
