Latest Nursing News

The medals of Australia's most distinguished war nurse have been donated to the Australian War Memorial, joining her clandestine diaries, photographs and the bullet-riddled uniform she wore during her captivity as a prisoner of war.

NURSES should be given more responsibility to discharge patients to clear hospital beds and reduce the number of days people stay, the nurses union says. Specialist doctors are often called into hospitals on weekends, at extra cost, to approve large numbers of patients to go home.

More than 80 per cent of nurses and midwives would consider abandoning their jobs if penalty rates were stripped from them, with many citing the Christmas period as the worst time to work, a nationwide survey reveals.

Robin Miller was a lauded West Australian pilot and Royal Flying Doctor Service flight nurse who brought modern medicine to north-western Australia while breaking down barriers for women in aviation. ^[+audio]

The Queensland Government has moved to ensure there are always enough nurses to care for patients in the state's public hospitals. It has introduced legislation to Parliament that would require public sector health facilities to provide one nurse or midwife for every four patients during the day, and one nurse to every seven patients overnight.

Nurses working the overnight 12-hour shift at Canberra Hospital have attacked the ACT government for failing to fix an "oversight" which has cost them more than $1000 each a year.

Forty-four percent of nurses would choose a different career if given the chance to do it all again. Despite earning  $95,000 to $170,000, many expressed dissatisfaction with the job, the research reports

The Tasmanian Government's decision to cut nurses' overtime has been met with a lukewarm response from the union and Opposition. From January, nurses will not be able to work for more than 12 hours straight, unless it is under exceptional circumstances.

STRESSED, upset and anxious about their future, Northern Rivers nursing and midwifery staff have called on Northern NSW Local Health District (NNSW LHD) management to urgently overhaul a workforce plan proposed for the new Byron Central Hospital.

Claudia Sanborn, RN, author of the book, THE YELLOW SICK ROAD, talks about how her nursing community is reacting to her book.^[+audio]