12 March 2001

Assistants in Nursing ARE part of the nursing team!

In a recent Victorian case as well as our own successful defence of nursing through the Churches of Christ Care case last year, substantial evidence has been presented and accepted that Assistants in nursing are part of the nursing team.

Work such as bathing, showering, changing beds and toileting is integral to quality nursing care and forms part of the nursing care plans required to be developed by registered nurses and is nursing work.

In Queensland, registered nurses who prepare nursing care plans retain responsibility for the care which is actually provided to patients/residents under that plan, whether they perform this work themselves or whether the tasks are delegated to others. Registered nurses must not only ensure that the tasks are performed, but that they are performed by competent staff in accordance with proper nursing standards.

To ensure this occurs, it is necessary for nursing staff at all levels - registered nurses, enrolled nurses and assistants in nursing - to work as a team and to recognise the integral role each member of the nursing team plays in the successful delivery of quality nursing care. To do otherwise risks the fragmentation of nursing care and threatens the holistic nature of nursing work.

It is for this reason that the QNU is opposed to nursing work being performed by employees who are classified as 'aged care workers' or other terminology which seeks to distance unlicensed staff from the nursing team and seeks to define nursing work as 'domestic' work.