27 October 2022
There are dozens of health positions going unfilled in regional South Australia but the ANMF (SA Branch) is optimistic conditions within the proposed Enterprise Bargaining Agreement will make working in the country more appealing.
ANMF (SA Branch) CEO/Secretary Adj Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars AM has visited nurses and midwives in Mount Gambier and the Riverland this week, giving our members an opportunity to ask questions about the agreement on the table.
Ms Dabars said special attraction/retention measures for rural and remote areas will be finalised and then incorporated into the EBA in the near future.
“A wide range of measures will be discussed including housing availability, rental subsidies, childcare, education subsidies and a right-to-return (condition) for those who have a substantive position in the metropolitan area,” Ms Dabars told ABC South-East.
“The in-principle understanding of how urgent and desperate it is to attract and retain nurses and midwives to those country areas is well understood by the Government.”
In the South-East alone, there are currently more than 25 jobs advertised on employment website Seek, with employees looking to recruit aged care nurses, clinical nurses, specialist paediatricians, midwives and RNs.
Ms Dabars said workforce planning discussions between the ANMF (SA Branch) and the Government are continuing with long and short-term strategies on how to address shortages in the regions being considered.
“You cannot simply advertise for these positions if you have not had any genuine thought as to how are you going to create an environment where people would be either willing or able to apply,” she said.
“We have to make sure that there are enough people going through the system and engaging in post-graduate studies, and being employed and upskilled in order to create the workforce that we need, not just now, but in the future.”
Ms Dabars said her tours of regional hospitals – including at Mount Gambier - were always an enjoyable and valuable experience.
“You have an amazing team of nurses and midwives across that hospital who are doing very, very fine work,” Ms Dabars said.
“They are extremely dedicated, extremely professional and extremely caring and I was deeply impressed with their skill and their service to the community.”
Ms Dabars’ regional tour will continue in Port Lincoln and the Mid North next week.
For more information on the EBA
click here.