Latest Nursing News

The 2013 voluntary bonding scheme has opened for New Zealand nursing and midwifery graduates who want to work in hard-to-staff communities and specialities.

FAIR Work Australia has been called in to sort out staffing issues at Colac Area Health, though only management can turn around the low morale, the nurses union has said.

Bega Valley nurses from local hospitals and community health services came out in force on Monday to launch the “Ratios put patient safety first” campaign.

ORANGE nurses came out in force yesterday to demand equality at the launch of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association’s, (NSWNMA) ratios put patient safety first, campaign. The campaign calling on better nurse to patient ratios was launched in Sydney on March 19.

WALKERS have raised just over $6000 to support a specialist Parkinson’s nurse and that is not the final tally. A group of walkers clocked up 40km in nine hours from Laurieton’s North Brother mountain to the Port Macquarie Town Green on Saturday to raise money and awareness for the cause.

On behalf of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, I salute the 35,848 midwives and 310,660 nurses for their invaluable contribution to the health and well being of the Australian community.

A seasoned Wollongong emergency department nurse has spoken out about the stress of working in an understaffed "pressure-cooker" environment. "A lot of the time it's just daunting, you have to have an eye on everything and really trust your colleagues are on their game because things can escalate out of control in an instant," the nurse, who asked not to be identified, said yesterday.

Today, May 1, is May Day, a day of celebration for workers in their communities around the world. Here in the Illawarra, I couldn't think of a group of workers and a community campaign more deserving of a special mention than our nurses and midwives and their efforts to secure minimum ratios of nurses to patients.

NURSES are hopeful that their threatened walk-out from Dandenong Hospital emergency department nurses may be averted after talks with Monash Health this morning. Australian Nursing Federation state assistant secretary Paul Gilbert said tomorrow’s strike action would be called off if Monash Health ‘‘confirmed in writing’’ improved security measures discussed this morning.

NEPEAN Hospital nurses and midwives are urging smaller staff-to-patient ratios across all NSW hospitals and health units. The secretary of NSW’s Nurses and Midwives Association, Judith Kiejda, attended Nepean Hospital’s campaign launch last week.