17 June 2021
Exhausted nurses are opting to take shifts in vaccination hubs instead of emergency departments, adding to the crisis in the nation’s public hospitals, Guardian Australia reports.
Nurses are snubbing emergency departments and GP surgeries because they are paid more to deliver vaccinations and can also obtain much-needed respite from overcrowded public hospitals and clinics, the online paper says.
In South Australia too, the ANMF (SA Branch) knows of ED and ICU nurses who have chosen to work in vaccine hubs as it gives them a break from the pandemonium of their hospital departments.
The national exodus has led to calls for nurses to be better supported in hospital emergency departments.
The ANMF (SA Branch) has repeatedly advocated for more resources and staffing for public hospitals and emergency departments, and wages far more reflective of the vital contribution our hard-working, highly skilled nurses make to the community.
A senior agency nurse working in a vaccination hub told Guardian Australia: “I’ve never been paid as much as I’m being paid to work in the vaccination hub”.
“It’s paid incredibly well,” she said.
“I’m earning at least double what I would be as a nurse in a GP surgery and let me tell you some of the conditions were absolutely horrendous, and it’s a really hard, badly paid job.
“I’ve also spoken to some of the nurses working in the hub who work in emergency departments and they’ve just had enough. Here in the hub, some days it can be really boring, slow and tedious, but it’s well paid. You at least get what you should be getting and more than working in a hospital.
“I have certainly had friends say they were vaccinated by an ED [emergency department] or ICU nurse,” he said. “My hospital frequently runs at 30 to 40 nurses below usual, which means more than a hundred beds are idle.
“The patients waiting for those beds are in ED where there are also up to 10 nurses less than usual and so also beds that can’t be used to see new patients.”
The nurse told Guardian Australia nurses must be better supported to work in hospitals and particularly in emergency departments. “The difference in pay rates between vaccination hubs and emergency needs to be closed because there’s a financial incentive not to work in the emergency department if you can get more money elsewhere,” he said.
“There needs to be more support for people who are willing to do the work within emergency to make it less stressful.”
ANMF (SA Branch) CEO/Secretary Adj Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars AM said one of the most pressing issues adding to the stress on emergency departments was the surge of mental health presentations, resulting in bed blockage and sluggish patient flow throughout the hospital system.
“We have repeatedly warned the Marshall Government that failure to address the problem of mental health patient flow - to act decisively on the urgent need for alternative places of more appropriate treatment - will result in disastrous consequences for the future of health care in this state,’’ Ms Dabars said.
“The results for patient care and for nursing staff in the emergency departments have been horrendous. Patients with mental health care needs, who are understandably frustrated at being bedridden in EDs often for days at a time, can lash out with violence and aggression.
“In recent weeks and months we have experienced record numbers of people waiting in emergency departments for a bed and hospitals running at more than double their capacity, resulting in missed and delayed care.
“We are forever hearing of staff shortages, chronic ramping, patients with life-threatening medical emergencies forced to wait hours for an ambulance response, exhausted nurses forced to work successive shifts - and all at a time when an inert State Government offers voluntary separation packages despite being unable to find adequate staff numbers to fill shifts,’’ Ms Dabars said.
“No wonder nurses are fed-up and looking for alternative work options or, most alarmingly, looking to leave the profession altogether.’
“The Marshall Government simply must invest so much more into health, so that we have a system that retains and attracts staff, not one that drives them away.’’
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A nurse working in Victoria said hospitals were “severely” short-staffed and some permanent staff were even considering going casual for better pay, Guardian Australia reports.
“Agency staff are heading to vaccine hubs,” she said.
“It’s just related to the casual workforce, as permanent staff are still contracted to their units. It has a significant impact, as we can’t get patients treated and admitted due to short staffing as the regular avenues for filling those gaps aren’t available because those nurses are going where the conditions are better.
“Permanent staff are considering going casual in order to work in vaccine hubs because the pay is much better than regular ward nursing pay. Conditions in hospitals aren’t very good and that’s what’s really disappointing. When opportunities become available in environments with good conditions, that’s where the workforce goes.”
According to job advertisements for vaccination hub nurses, they can expect to receive $47 to $55 an hour, plus penalty rates.
A professor with the University of Sydney’s Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery told Guardian Australia nurses took on “huge levels of responsibility”.
“It’s very hard work and they’re not paid enough,” she said. Talk throughout the pandemic of nurses being “angels” and “saints” had not helped, the professor said, because there was a notion that angels and saints were happy to work for little reward out of the goodness of their hearts.
“You don’t have to pay angels and saints well,” she said.
“Despite all of the expertise and hard work of nurses, they lack power in the health system. We need to get beyond that angel and saint terminology to recognise that these are highly intelligent, highly trained, highly qualified professionals who are working extremely hard. And they should be paid sufficiently for that.”
Hundreds of Sydney nurses and midwives went on strike last week over a dispute with the NSW Government over pay and conditions.
“Members have described critical staffing shortages across their emergency departments, intensive care units, mental health units and maternity services,” the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association general secretary, Brett Holmes, said at the time. “These nurses and midwives are at breaking point.”