Greater collaboration needed to address nursing workplace shortfall

Professor Cath Rogers-Clark

USQ Head of Nursing and Midwifery Professor Cath Rogers Clark has called on all areas of the health industry to work closely together to manage the skills shortage in the profession, which will become critical over the next few years.

Professor Rogers-Clark made the statement during her speech at the Queensland Nursing Council (QNC) Awards event in Brisbane earlier this month and said that the issues surrounding accreditation and clinical placements must first be addressed.

'In nursing we are facing relatively unchartered waters as we ‘count down’ to national registration and this is a particular source of unease as nurses and midwives remain unclear of our future in relation to accreditation.

'As well as this there has also been much debate surrounding the competing view in some government circles that nursing education should also be offered by organisations other than universities, to meet the workplace shortfall.

'Fortunately the Queensland Health Minister has stated unequivocally that Queensland supports tertiary education of registered nurses.'

Professor Rogers-Clark noted that tertiary education was fundamental to the ongoing development of Nursing and Midwifery as key health professions. Nurses constitute 40% of the Queensland Health workforce, and their contribution to health care is critically important to the health and wellbeing of all Australians.

As the population ages the numbers of nurses and midwives needed will increase substantially.

‘Unfortunately there are currently significant barriers to increasing the numbers of nursing students. At USQ we would be delighted to increase our student numbers if we had access to guaranteed clinical placements at a cost we could afford,' she said.

'Despite the widespread awareness that we face a major workforce shortage in nursing, the current state of play is that different arms of our industry work against each other.

'For example, sometimes hospitals and health services which are already under significant pressure to manage high workloads find the additional demands of having students in their facilities simply too much.

'It is encouraging that Queensland Health, universities and the private sector are now starting to work together on this problem.

'Increasing clinical placements and ensuring that the costs associated with these are affordable, are the real solutions to ensuring that more registered and enrolled nurses are educated for the future.'

Professor Rogers-Clark’s address also marked the final time that the QNC would gather before disbanding ahead of national registration later in the year.

The event was attended by the Governor of Queensland, the Parliamentary Secretary for Health, and nurse leaders from around the state.

Contact Details:
Josh Ada, USQ Media, +61 7 4631 2559 or 0400 025 429