Appendix 3 - Issues raised in submissions responding to ANF questionnaire

Appendix 3 - Issues raised in submissions responding to ANF questionnaire

The ANF and some State branches circulated a questionnaire based on the Committee’s terms of reference to its members for completion and submission to the Committee. The Committee received 658 submissions from individual nurses in response to this questionnaire.

The questions contained in this questionnaire are listed below, although there was some variation across the States in which questions were used.

Q1.      Briefly describe your current work situation, and factors impacting on the working lives of nurses.  (Qld, Vic, ACT, Tas)

Q2.      What strategies do you think would assist in the recruitment and retention of nurses?  (Qld, Vic, ACT, Tas)

Q3.      What changes do you think would assist the interface between universities and the health system and better prepare nurses to meet future labour force needs? (Tas)

Q4.      What has been successfully introduced recently to improve the recruitment and retention of nurses?  (Vic)

Q5.      What is still wrong with the system?  (Vic)

Q6.      What else can be done to address these shortfalls (eg education, scholarships)? (Vic).

The following information provides a listing of the general issues and concerns most commonly expressed by the nurses in response to the questionnaire, together with a profile of the respondents by area of practice, nursing specialty, length of nursing service and years they expect to remain in nursing.

General issues/concerns most commonly expressed in nurse responses

No.

%

Skills recognition/poor pay rates/low morale

559

85.0%

Staffing shortages/high workloads/cost-cutting/stress

531

80.7%

Staff development/access to and support while undertaking continuing education

318

48.3%

Inflexible rosters/leave not family friendly

316

48.0%

Shift work/night duty/recall to duty/double shifts

305

46.4%

Positive response to University training/need for more clinical experience/placements

261

39.7%

Lack of control over clinical practice/non-nursing duties

225

34.2%

Lack of management support

164

24.9%

Staff level of expertise/lack of experienced staff support

149

22.6%

Lack of staff to allow release/replacement for education/study

130

19.8%

Patient abuse/violence/horizontal violence

127

19.3%

Provision of child care services

92

14.0%

Increased casualisation of staff

76

11.6%

Staff movement/inflexibility to move or work in desired areas

32

4.9%

Hospital-based training

28

4.3%

Total number of respondents

 

658

Frequency of Issues chart

Profile of nurses who responded to the questionnaire

Location of Practice

Hospital/

nursing location

City

Regional

Rural/

Remote

Unstated

Total

Total for each area

362

171

87

38

658

Percentage

55.1%

26.0%

13.2%

5.6%

100%

 

Hospital/nursing location pie chart


Nursing position

Nursing speciality

Clinical

Community

Aged Care

Educator

Other

Unstated

Total

 

472

77

70

10

15

13

658

Percentage

71.8%

11.7%

10.7%

1.5%

2.3%

2.0%

100.0%

Respondents by nursing specialty pie chart


Length of nursing service

Years in nursing

0 to 5

6 to 10

11 to 20

>20

Unstated

Total

Respondents

33

59

182

361

22

658

Years in nursing pie chart

Percentage

5.0%

9.0%

27.7%

54.9%

3.3%

100%

 

Years expected to remain in nursing

Years expecting to remain in nursing

0 to 5

6 to 10

11 to 20

>20

Unstated

Total

Totals

170

148

149

34

157

658

Years expecting to remain in nursing pie chart

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