Cairns Base Hospital nursing roster provides more evidence of nurse shortage - 28 November 2002
QNU Nurses. Worth Looking After campaign wins national award - 27 October 2002
28 November 2002
Nurses. Worth Looking After campaign up-date
Cairns Base nurse roster data provides further evidence of nurse shortage
Nurse roster data from the Cairns Base Hospital, for a two-week period in early October this year, paints a graphic picture of the impact of the nurse shortage on a major Queensland hospital, the Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) said today.
The QNU today released roster data from Cairns Base Hospital for the period from Monday September 30 to Sunday October 13, which shows that on most days between 20 and 25 per cent of the hospital’s nursing shifts were either not filled, worked by a nurse doing a double shift or filled by casual staff.
The QNU understands that, from Monday to Friday, there are currently about 330 nursing shifts rostered over the 24-hour period (there are less shifts on weekends) at Cairns Base and between September 30 and October 13 the roster data showed the following:
Monday September 30 - 72 casual shifts used, 6 double shifts, 7 shifts not replaced, total 85
Tuesday October 1 - 62 casual shifts used, 3 double shifts, 13 shifts not replaced, total 78
Wednesday October 2 - 52 casual shifts, 3 double shifts, 7 shifts not replaced, total 62
Thursday October 3 - 54 casual shifts, 7 double shifts, 2 shifts not replaced, total 63
Friday October 4 - 63 casual shifts, 3 double shifts, 3 shifts not replaced, total 68
Saturday October 5 - 63 casual shifts, 3 double shifts, 2 shifts not replaced, total 68
Sunday October 6 - 61 casual shifts used, 8 double shifts, 1 shift not replaced, total 70
Monday October 7 - 61 casual shifts used, 7 double shifts, 9 shifts not repalced, total 77
Tuesday October 8 - 63 casual shifts used, 1 double shift, 7 shifts not replaced, total 71
Wednesday October 9 - 69 casual shifts, 1 double shift, 5 shifts not replaced, total 75
Thursday October 10 - 62 casual shifts, 4 double shifts, 6 shifts not replaced, total 72
Friday October 11 - 59 casual shifts, 7 shifts not replaced, total 66
Saturday October 12 - 47 casual shifts, 1 double shift, 1 shift not replaced, total 49
Sunday October 13 - 49 casual shifts used, 3 double shifts, total 52
Total for two weeks - 838 casual shifts used, 48 double shifts, 70 shifts not replaced, total 956 shifts.
QNU secretary, Gay Hawksworth, said these figures are a real concern and make a further mockery of Queensland Government claims that Queensland has somehow avoided the national and international shortage of nurses.
“To have such high levels of casual staff, such regular use of double shifts and so many shifts not filled at all indicates just how serious the shortage has become. Firstly there are not enough nurses available to fill every shift and of those still working as nurses, very large numbers are not prepared or not able to work full-time as nurses.
“There is always some casual usage in hospitals, but to be at around one in five is very high. And these figures don’t even take into account permanent part-time staff.
“I understand many of the shifts not filled were in specialty areas such as intensive care, coronary care and dialysis. QNU members at Cairns Base advise me that, because they are specialty areas, they just couldn’t get anyone. They had to work short, which is not good for staff or patients. Even in this morning’s Courier-Mail, over a month later, they are still advertising for level 1 and 2 nurses to fill ‘several full-time or part-time positions’ in the Cairns Base intensive care unit,” Ms Hawksworth said.
This latest evidence of the widespread nurse shortage confronting Queensland’s health system follows recent announcements by Queensland Health that:
- at October 21 this year there were at least 810 (including 44 in the Cairns District) nursing positions vacant in the Queensland public health system (excluding the Mater) – up from 756, including the Mater, in February 2002;
- it is offering Australian nurses working overseas a free flight home to fill nursing vacancies in Queensland public hospitals and health facilities; and
- it is having discussions with the Immigration Department about providing information about Queensland to nurses on the skilled migrant list who have had visas approved.
“Clearly Queensland is struggling with a serious nurse shortage. I again call on the Queensland Government to get its head out of the sand and move to make nursing a more attractive career option through improved wages and conditions,” Ms Hawksworth said.
“Based on an analysis of the nursing registration figures and historical data, the QNU estimates there is anything up to 10,000 registered and enrolled nurses in Queensland not working as nurses. This is about 20 per cent of the total and many could be enticed to return if working conditions were improved and wages better matched the difficult work nurses are now expected to perform.”
The QNU launched its Nurses: Worth Looking After campaign in March this year, with the objective of rebuilding Queensland’s nursing workforce through a range of initiatives including improving public sector nurse wages and ensuring workloads are safe for both patients and staff.
As a result of this award-winning campaign the QNU’s wages and conditions claim for public sector nurses has gone to arbitration. This followed the Australian Industrial Relations Commission’s (AIRC) termination, in July, of the bargaining between the QNU and Queensland Health for a new enterprise bargaining agreement.
On 25 October the Full Bench of the AIRC awarded Queensland’s 20,000 public sector nurses an interim wage rise of 3.8 per cent, effective from that date, and a formal process for relieving excessive workloads, while it continues arbitration on the QNU’s full application for improved wages and conditions.
Arbitration of the QNU’s full wages and conditions application is scheduled for hearing in the AIRC next week – December 3, 4, 5 and 6. The Queensland Government continues to oppose the QNU’s claim.
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27 November 2002
“Nurses: Worth Looking After” campaign up-date
Queensland nurses win national award for pay and conditions campaign
Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) members throughout the State have won a national award for their Nurses: Worth Looking After campaign, aimed at rebuilding nursing as an attractive career option.
The QNU won the coveted “Best Workplace Campaign” category in the ACTU’s annual media awards. QNU secretary, Gay Hawksworth, accepted the award on behalf of Queensland nurses at the ACTU’s 75th anniversary dinner in Melbourne last night.
The high profile campaign reached a crescendo in June and July this year when nurses took the strongest State-wide industrial and community-based action ever taken by Queensland nurses. The action was in response to an inadequate pay and conditions offer from the State Government.
Features of the campaign included:
- implementing work bans in nearly 100 hospitals;
- holding a State-wide strike involving up to 10,000 nurses on June 20;
- closing hospital beds that weren’t fully staffed;
- holding a major rally outside State Parliament on July 12;
- bringing a bus load (the Chunder Bucket Express) of regional nurses to Brisbane for the rally;
- sustained State-wide media coverage;
- newspaper advertising by both the QNU and State Government;
- the production of a campaign song and video clip;
- a 60,000-signature petition presented to the Queensland Parliament; and
- numerous Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) hearings.
During the campaign, nurses implemented work bans at the following facilities:
Atherton Community, Atherton Hospital, Ayr Hospital, Babinda Hospital, Bayside Community Health, Bayside Women and Birthing Service, Beaudesert Hospital, Boonah Hospital, Bundaberg Community Health, Bundaberg Hospital, Bundaberg Mental Health, Cairns Base Hospital, Cairns Community Health Centres, Caloundra Hospital, Cape York health facilities, Clermont Hospital, Cooktown Hospital, Emerald Hospital, Esk Hospital, Everton Tide Charters Towers, Eventide Rockhampton, Gladstone Hospital,Gold Coast Community Health, Gold Coast Hospital, Gordonvale Hospital, Gympie Community Health, Gympie Hospital, Halwyn Centre, Herberton Hospital, Hervey Bay Community Health, Hervey Bay Hospital, Ingham Hospital, Innisfail Hospital, Innisfail Community Health, Ipswich Hospital, Jacana, Keperra Hospital, Kirwan Hospital, Laidley Hospital, Logan Hospital, Logan Mental Health, Logan Community Mental Health, Mackay Community Health, Mackay Hospital, Mareeba Hospital, Mareeba Community Health, Maryborough Hospital, Maryborough Community, Mater Hospital Brisbane, Miles Hospital, Moranbah Community, Moranbah Hospital, Moranbah Mental Health, Moreton Bay Nursing Care Unit, Mount Isa Hospital, Mount Lofty Toowoomba, Nambour Hospital, Nambour Mental Health, North Rockhampton Nursing Centre, Oakey Health, Service, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Prince Charles Hospital, QE II Community Health, QE II Hospital, Redcliffe-Caboolture District facilities, Redland Hospital, Redland Mental Health, Rockhampton Hospital, Rockhampton Mental Health, Roma Health Service, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Royal Children’s Hospital, Royal Women’s Hospital, Sarina Community Health, Sarina Hospital, Stanthorpe Hospital, Sunshine Coast Community Health, Toowoomba Base Hospital, Toowoomba Community Health, Toowoomba Mental Health, Torres Strait and Northern Cape facilities, Townsville Community Mental Health, Townsville Hospital, Warwick Hospital, West Moreton Community Health, Wolston Park Hospital, Wynnum Hospital, Yarrabah Hospital, Yeppoon Hospital & Nursing Home
They also closed beds at the following 30 public hospitals: Beaudesert, Bundaberg Base Caboolture, Cairns Base, Emerald, Eventide Rockhampton, Gladstone, Gold Coast, Hervey Bay Hospital, Ipswich, Logan, Mackay, Mount Isa, Nambour, Oakey, Princess Alexandra, QE II, Redcliffe, Redland, Rockhampton, Royal Brisbane, Royal Children’s, Stanthorpe, Prince Charles, Toowoomba, Townsville, Warwick, Weipa, Wynnum, Yeppoon
QNU secretary, Gay Hawksworth, said this award belongs to all those nurses throughout the State who stood their ground earlier this year to get more resources for Queensland public hospital nurses and patients.
“Every QNU member - from Cape York to the Gold Coast, from Redlands to Mount Isa – has contributed to winning this award. It is a victory for the commitment shown by Queensland nurses to the future of a properly staffed, high-quality public health system. Congratulations to them all.
“It is also a rebuff for those doomsayers who predict that the days of successful collective action by working people are numbered. An analysis of QNU membership figures shows that more than 2000 public sector nurses joined the QNU as a result of this campaign.
"The campaign obviously wasn’t run for this purpose, but this is a good indicator of what good campaigning can achieve. The nurses who joined clearly believed in the issues and were prepared to be part of an active union committed to their wellbeing and the wellbeing of vital community services,” Ms Hawksworth said.
The QNU launched its Nurses: Worth Looking After campaign in March this year, with the objective of rebuilding Queensland’s nursing workforce through a range of initiatives including improving public sector nurse wages and ensuring workloads are safe for both patients and staff.
As a result of the award-winning campaign the QNU’s wages and conditions claim for public sector nurses has gone to arbitration. This followed the AIRC’s termination, in July, of the bargaining between the QNU and Queensland Health for a new enterprise bargaining agreement.
On 25 October the Full Bench of the AIRC awarded Queensland’s 20,000 public sector nurses an interim wage rise of 3.8 per cent, effective from that date, and a formal process for relieving excessive workloads, while it continues arbitration on the QNU’s full application for improved wages and conditions.
Arbitration of the QNU’s full wages and conditions application is scheduled for hearing in the AIRC next week – December 3, 4, 5 and 6.
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