Nursing students to suffer under Labor, Coalition healthcare boost
Nursing groups have raised concerns with Victoria’s two major political parties over election promises that could create a crisis.
State Election
Don't miss out on the headlines from State Election. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Key nursing bodies have raised the alarm about an impending crisis in the sector due to both major parties promising to create thousands of new nursing positions while there’s limited availability of on-the-job training in hospitals.
The groups say this will create a “bottleneck” whereby university students are unable to do their required 800 hours of mandatory clinical placements before they can graduate.
In a bid to save Victoria’s embattled healthcare system, the Coalition has promised to train, recruit and upskill 40,000 nurses and midwives across the private and public sectors.
Meanwhile the Andrews government announced three months ago the state would pay for the courses of more than 10,000 nursing and midwifery students.
To accommodate for the thousands of new students needing the 800 hours of practical experience each, one health body believes that Labor would need to commit to finding an additional 1.7 million placements while the Coalition would have to find an extra four million.
But when contacted by the Herald Sun Labor said it would only fund an additional 200,000 placements.
The Coalition did not respond by deadline.
It comes as Victorian member on the Council of Deans of Nursing and Midwifery executive committee Professor Marie Gerdtz warned they were having trouble retaining current staff.
She said that meant the availability of experienced nurses to supervise new ones was already “tight”.
“A registered nurse has to supervise a student nurse, it can’t be another health professional … meaning that the hospitals have to have educators available to provide that facilitation,” she told the Herald Sun.
A document from the Victorian government’s Clinical Placement Roundtable discussion, obtained by the Herald Sun, notes a 4 per cent decrease in clinical placements in recent years.
Australian College of Nurses CEO Adjunct Professor Kylie Ward said there was a backlog of students still catching up on the clinical hours from two years ago.
“Our community is letting us know there is a backlog of students who are still catching up on their clinical hours since 2020/21,” Adjunct Professor Ward said.
Nursing associations say aged care homes and doctor clinics could be used to train undergraduate nurses, instead of just relying on hospitals.
Top scientist to drive state’s clean energy push
The Victorian government has revealed its expert panel appointed to resurrect the state electricity commission months after the election.
Liberals win last seat in Victorian election
The Liberal Party has finally claimed the electorate of Narracan two months after the state election, bringing the Coalition to one more seat than it held after 2018.