Anger in Nursing Quarters

Anyone dealing with this first hand? Anger in nursing quarters - Government - News | Leader News

THE Australian Nursing Federation is locked in a struggle with the State Government over the use of health service assistants at Austin Health.

Certificate III health service assistants are being used at Austin and Bendigo Health, to help nurses with basic patient care such as feeding and making beds.

At a meeting on July 8, ANF members resolved to call on Health Minister Daniel Andrews to scrap the program and stop funding any further trials.

The ANF’s Victoria secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said the federation was concerned the move would undermine the outcome of the public sector enterprise bargaining agreement, as well as compromise patient care.

She said undergraduate second or third-year nursing students were better suited to take up the nursing assistant role in the hospital’s acute wards.

“Nurses want to protect the public with a registered workforce ensuring that nurses who care for the patients have hundreds of hours of study and clinical experience behind them,” Ms Fitzpatrick said.

“An undergraduate program has already been trialled interstate and has been successful.”

Austin Health’s chief executive Dr Brendan Murphy said he was “totally perplexed” by the ANF’s opposition.

“What we’re trying to do is support our nursing workforce by providing them with additional pairs of hands at difficult and busy times of the day, to help them with some limited tasks that you don’t really need a university degree to do and can be done with appropriate training and under the supervision of nurses,” Mr Murphy said.

He dismissed the union’s fears the program would eventually see nurses replaced by health service assistants.

Government spokesman Chris Owner said: “This is principally a matter for the health services concerned, however the Minister is in discussion with the ANF about it.”

I would think that nurses could use some help with bed making and feeding of patients. They have plenty of other duties to get done during their shift. It is when the level of involvement with professional nursing duties gets to the level of nursing assistants passing meds and doing other more complex tasks that I think the higher ups go too far. I guess the detractors see this move as a step in the wrong direction toward employers using less qualified workers at lower pay and undermining the jobs and professional view of nurses.