Securing jobs for nurse graduates
A new national campaign calling on Australian politicians to fund a range of strategies to guarantee the employment of nurse graduates was recently launched. The campaign, Stop passing the buck, Australia’s nursing grads need jobs, was developed by the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF).
A new national campaign calling on Australian politicians to fund a range of strategies to guarantee the employment of nurse graduates was recently launched.
The campaign, Stop passing the buck, Australia’s nursing grads need jobs, was developed by the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF).
The ANF’s federal secretary, Lee Thomas, claimed with predicted future shortages of nurses, the lack of employment of graduate nurses by the government was “staggering”.
Queensland reportedly employed only 10% of graduates, while in Victoria more than 800 graduate nurses were reported to be without employment, according to Ms Thomas.
“That’s why the new campaign is focused on applying pressure to state and federal politicians to fund a range of strategies to ensure employment of graduate nurses and the ongoing promotion of safe patient care,” she added.
The campaign’s key strategies included:
• waiving HECS fees for graduates who accept employment in areas of need;
• funding by state and federal governments of 24 hour, seven days per week clinical supervision and mentoring;
• rotation through non traditional graduate areas such as primary care and aged care in addition to acute settings; and
• joint state and federal funding for graduate positions.
The ANF, a professional and industrial voice for nurses, midwives and assistants in nursing, also called on Health Workforce Australia to conduct urgent research into where graduates go if they were not employed in nursing.
Ms Thomas claimed, in recent months, highly trained nurses had been “sacked” and the recruitment of nursing graduates stopped. She added hospital beds had been closed and vital mental health services and public and preventative health programs abandoned in order to achieve “savings”.
“Billions of dollars have been slashed from public health systems across Australia and it is nurses and midwives and the people they care for, each and every day, who are suffering as a result of it,” she said.
