Reports of only 10–30 per cent of nursing graduates getting state health jobs in Queensland and Tasmania has prompted an Australian nursing campaign to lobby for government action.
The Australian Nursing Federation’s “Stop passing the buck” campaign is calling on the Federal Government to work with the state governments to “fix the country’s nursing crisis”.
The Federation reports that in Queensland, only 10 per cent of graduate applicants were initially offered jobs with Queensland Health late last year, 30 per cent of Tasmania graduates got state jobs, and 50 per cent in South Australia. Approximately 800 nursing graduates were still job-hunting in Victoria, where about 60 per cent of graduates had found state jobs.
The campaign had led to 2650 emails to politicians, almost 10,000 supporters signed up, and an online poll of 680 people that endorsed the union call for government to do more about the crisis, including waiving student fees for graduates working in areas of need.
ANF Federal Secretary Lee Thomas said the online poll sent a ‘very loud’ message to the Gillard government that it needed to find strategies to ensure the employment of graduate nurses and midwives. The Federation also said with a predicted shortage of 109,000 nurses by 2024, the non-employment of graduate nurses by state governments was ‘staggering’.
Meanwhile CNN recently reported the results of an American Society of Registered Nurses survey that found 43 per cent of new US graduate respondents were still without jobs 18 months after graduation.
It also reported that 169,000 student nurses enrolled in nursing degree programmes in 2010–11 was nearly double the total of a decade before.
