Complexities of Training More Nurses

By Martin Davis

Around the country, promises are being made about how many nurses are going to be trained to fix the varying crises in public hospitals, but there are holes in the plan. Which hospitals will support the graduate nurses promised?

During the 2021 state election Premier Mark McGowan promised that 600 newly graduated nurses will be employed in Western Australia’s health system, but with there being a major health crisis, mixed with the current Covid-19 pandemic that is happening, is it more nurses that are required or getting more beds available in these hospitals.

The limited amount of programs out there for graduates in Australia is meaning that many fresh Nurses are going overseas to apply their craft.

Co-Founder and Company Director of Chemo@Home Lorna Cook says that “600 newly graduated nurses will not be able to patch a system that needs a complete revamping.”

Ms Cook continues to say that nurses are in short supply and the current COVID pandemic is not helping.

“Graduate nurses have fought year in and year out to find a job in the WA hospital system until they are “experienced” enough.

Ironically, these same nurses have often gone overseas to gain the experience they need to come back to WA to get a job for which they were rejected for not being experienced enough.”

This like many other industries is the case with employers wanting experience when there is a fresh newly graduated people out there they are just wanting to be allowed to apply their skills.

It isn’t a matter of throwing new nurses in the deep end, they need to be supported throughout the early years of their careers.

The fact is our public hospitals cannot support hundreds of new graduates and an expansion of graduate nurse programmes.

With Australia’s borders being closed to the majority of the world and harsher border closures in WA, getting nurses from overseas and interstate is more difficult than ever.

Recruitment of new nurses is becoming harder as many aren’t wanting to go into the public system when they are being hung out to dry by the government and especially after the fiasco at Perth Children Hospital earlier this year.

The Grattan Institute which is a health think-tank in Australia is telling us that community nursing, is the way of the future as Ms Cook explains “because Covid is closing wards, the treatment of patients with cancer and other chronic illnesses are being delayed and therefore diagnosis is being delayed.”

“Patients must be cared for at home. Not only is home care safer for the patients, not requiring movement around the community unnecessarily, but it is more cost-efficient and meets consumer demand. It tells us we need to look at a different way of treating and funding the care of patients.”