Guest Redaussies Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 I was quite surprised yesterday listening to an interview on the radio in the car, with a guy from Queensland health following the release of a Government report, the interview was on ABC Brisbane. I didn't realise the shortage of nurses here in Queensland was as bad as they claimed. I thought they were well on the way to fixing the situation. This interview was with a Senior guy from their health department and he was quite forceful in trying to emphasise the scale of the problem. QUEENSLAND'S struggling health system is short of more than 1000 nurses despite some aggressive recruitment efforts, according to a government report and a projected shortage of nursing professionals of roughly 1100 by 2008. The shortage persists despite recruitment campaigns interstate and overseas, and a rise in the number of people studying nursing in recent years. The ageing population is said to be another factor in the problem, and almost 75% of Queensland nurses are aged over 40, with a higher average in midwife's and nurses trained in mental illness. So I’m sure the drive to recruit Nurses will continue and I wonder how many more of them will make the trip form the UK to join up here in Queensland. I have been shocked to hear of many of the same problems here in Queensland just listening to the news, bed shortages, staff shortages and doctors working long hours. All sounds very familiar. I was told everything was very different to this in Australia. What do people involved in Health care think of work here compared to the UK, should I persist in canvassing a few of my friends back in Wales to come and work here ? What do you think? REDDERS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrscat Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 I'm an RGN hoping to move to Queensland, alot of the recruitment here especially in the nursing standard has been for mental health nursing rather than general nurses. If they did advertise for rgn's it's been mainly for itu nurses. I have been a nurse for 17 yrs with alot of different specialities under my belt. I have forwarded my cv to queensland health and fingers cross they will get in touch. Do you like working and living in brisbane? What are the main differences on the wards between the uk and oz?:smile: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JoanneHattersley Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 I work in an elderly care retirement village and we have many problems getting staff. I am an RN too. We are always pulling doubles and extras to cover shifts and had to employ a stack of EENs as RNs just not out there. Workload for me is more and more office based here too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 Same in WA too. The problem (as I see it) for mental health is that here they have a comprehensive training and no speicialised mental health branch. We're getting students for 3 weeks and that's the extent of their mental health training .... so even if they decide to go into MH - they enter the graduate programme with very little mental health experience. RMN's will have no problem getting a job. Ali Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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