NURSES: ENOUGH! WE QUIT!
Here’s the latest on the bitter row between the Victorian Government and nurses that threatens to throw the State’s hospitals into chaos:
“Frustrated nurses are ready to quit en masse as their bitterly fought industrial campaign with the Victorian government drags on. Australian Nursing Federation state secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick says she has received thousands of letters from nurses authorising her to resign on their behalf between February 13 and March 31.
But any resignations won’t occur before the end of February, when the union has completed a series of meetings to brief nurses at hospitals around the state on the plan.
“There is obviously a very significant number of nurses that are considering their future permanent employment in the public sector,” Ms Fitzpatrick said.
She said the nurses main concern is that they don’t want to work in a system where they don’t have ratios and where they have to be legally responsible for health assistants.” - The Age.
In November, Corinne Grant wrote for The Hoopla:
I come from a family of nurses: two aunties, a cousin, my sister and me.
Well, not me exactly. I did one year of a nursing degree and then realised I’d save more lives if I kept away from patients and became a comedian instead.
But nursing is what the women in my family do. I get pretty riled up when politicians belittle them.
Victorian nurses protest against State Government budget cuts in Melbourne.
The Victorian Government recently gave its police force a 19 percent pay rise over four years. Weirdly, the Police Association wasn’t even asking for that much.
Reeling from a serious scandal – and his own Deputy Premier dragged before the Office of Police Integrity – Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu threw wads of cash at the police like a frightened six-year-old throwing bread at angry ducks.
Money talks.
And then it doesn’t.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for paying police a decent wage – but if you’re going to give it to one part of the public sector and not another, you start looking a little dodgy.
The Australian Nursing Federation has now asked Baillieu for 18.5 percent over three years and eight months and, more importantly, for the nurse to patient ratio to remain at 1:4.
The Government has told them to bugger off. In fact, not only to bugger off but to accept an increase in the nurse to patient ratio to a staggering 1:10.
Denying nurses is just the start of it. Baillieu also ran on a 2010 election promise to make Victoria’s teachers the best paid in the country. Now it looks like he’s reneging on that as well.
A male-dominated work force is gifted a giant, novelty-sized cheque and two of the largest female-dominated work forces are chastised as greedy for asking for the same.
Apparently it all comes down to productivity.
If nurses and teachers could just learn to be productive, the Victorian Government would raise their stipend as a reward.
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50 Responses to this article
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Sue C E November 30, 2011
Could not agree more Corinne. Pay the people at ‘the coal face’ what they are worth and get rid of the myriad of pencil pushers who bring little if anything to the equation. We are quickly joining the UK where the clerks all but outnumber the nurses in the NHS. Let’s pay the folk we would want to have looking after us in the hospitals, not some bean counters or health and safety clowns. In hospital, I don’t want to wait 10th in line for pain meds, a shower, or god forbid, resuscitation. And I certainly don’t want to never see a nurse because she / he is busy doing the paperwork which it seems takes the place of a good number of patients. 1:4 and a remuneration that fits with experience and expertise is the least we should all expect to pay for these wonderful folk who are there in our time of greatest need.
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Carolyn November 30, 2011
Sue, my sister works in the NHS as a social worker. She runs a sexual health clinic in a large hospital.
The cuts have hit them very hard, she is senior but they are expecting her to do the work of three.
They have also lost a lot of nurses. The situation is really untenable but there is nothing she can do, friends who had previously left to work as consultants are now jobless .
So it’s a case of better the devil you know. -
Louise December 9, 2011
Thanks Corrine Although no longer at the coal face I am fully supporting my peers. I have been in the business too long studied too hard and fought too many previous battles to see Ted take it all away due to a basic lack of respect. What are they afraid of????
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Adam F November 30, 2011
Again, well said. The value of nurses is not to be underestimated. The bean-counters need to understand that wages for people who do a tremendously tough and important job are not to be skimped on. We need to be listening to them and supporting the members of our emergency services.
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Debbie Lane November 30, 2011
I am not decrying the need for all of the things Corinne is advocating. I used to be a nurse myself and couldn’t agree more. But the fact of the matter, when I was a student nurse in Qld, was that 9-10 patients were the order of the day, As an RN, it was 9 on day shift and 12 on evening shift…heaven help you on night shift when you were responsible for the entire ward. And that was over 10 years ago. I finally had enough because every day was a potential lawsuit waiting to happen, and I went to uni and did a degree in something I actually looked forward to doing each day. And now I experience hospitals on a regular basis as a patient…heaven help us all.
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corinne grant November 30, 2011
Yep, spot on Debbie. This is exactly why the nursing work force is ageing. The ANF’s research shows that the average age of an RN is 44.2 years and rising. I suspect it’s because of the exact story you have told–it’s exhausting, impossible work and you are not able to look after your patients properly. So people leave–they are sick of the stress (and like you said, the fear of lawsuits or something terrible happening on your watch). Your story proves why 1:4 is so important. The NSW nurses tried to get it earlier this year as well. It’s recognised as the best model for nurses to be able to work effectively and give the best possible care. It would be wonderful to see it come in across Australia.
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Tara Nipe December 9, 2011
Thank you so much, Corinne.
Reversing an international trend, Victoria’s nursing workforce has been getting younger – because of the ratios. As you point out, if need be nurses are prepared to trade higher salaries for safer patient care. The reverse isn’t true.
Local and international research conistently demonstrates that an experienced and educated nurisng workforce reduces health costs – shorter stays, fewer errors, fewer ICU admissions, reduced pressure injury and fall rates, and more patients staying home once they’re discharged. More importantly, when cared for by qualified staff fewer patients die.
I’ve been a nurse at the Alfred for 22 years – every year the patients get sicker and their stays in hospital shorter, so we’re now caring for considerably more patients than we were even two years ago. Some shifts the paperwork takes as much time as another patient would.
This effects us all, not just nurses. I love my job, and I’m good at it. If we lose ratios and see the introduction of short shifts, broken shifts and minimally-trained staff replacing my colleagues I’m gone, and I won’t be alone. Anyone who wants quality care for themselves and their families must support us, as we support you in your time of need. Please sign the petitions, attend the public rallies, and let the Victorian government know that you respect our work. Thank you.
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Sarah Watts November 30, 2011
Well said! I cannot believe we don’t value this profession (and those like it) more. We need them when are at our most vulnerable and are the first to cry foul if somehting goes wrong becasue staff are stretched to the limit!
Police, Nusres, Ambos, Fire fighters and teachers should all be valued for what they do and compensated accordingly! -
Karen Smith November 30, 2011
Thank you Corrinne for this wonderful and well said story. I am a nurse currently on stress leave for a job I’ve done well since I was 17. I’m now in my late forties. Unfortunately, the demands are such that nurses are reaching burn out by the time they are 50. We are tired!!
We simply cannot keep working with such poor conditions and little validation. The paperwork has become all consuming and is affecting the coal face work of client needs. Within the system there also needs to be some major psychological changes and rethinking. Nurses need to validate each other. I recently attended a team building where we had to make paper hats!!!. A shit load of money that didn’t discuss the real issues of tired nurses who need support. I’d love to see some clever marketing or TV ads that discuss the many,many kinds of nurses and show our strengths. I work in mental health in schools (for 7yrs) and still get asked to deal with nits!!! The general public do not understand that Nurses have evolved and are not JUST in the hospital system. There is resentment from some staff who cannot get their head around the stereotyped version of your brilliant description of the BENNY HILL NURSE. As one staff member in a school said to me- “Oh, I’ve heard it all now! A nurse who works here, but is not really a real nurse”. We need some revolutionary new marketing ! This was after I’d explained the countless mental health referrals, child safety reports and hundreds of hours of sex ed classes to illuminate young people to the perils of Chlamydia!!! and the wart virus!! Praps I just need a good holiday. MMM.But once again thank you for your support. I met you at the Brisbane Writers festival and love your book by the way. Onward we go sisters! Secretly, I want to work in comedy!! Now there’s a thought! -
AJ November 30, 2011
I have a friend who has recently been in hospital for surgery in NSW. She was also in hospital last year as well. She has specifically said she felt the overall level of care was better this time than last, and attributed that to the reduction of nurse:patient ratios to 1:4. Patient care should be the measure of productivity for nurses and they should be well compensated for the dangers they face and the shift work.
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Amy November 30, 2011
Thank you, thank you, thank you…from the bottom of my heart. You have summed it up so well. <3
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Jacintha beard November 30, 2011
Thanks sooo much Corinne for a fabulous article!!!
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tjwebby November 30, 2011
Hear, hear Corinne. I look forward to the day when I can vote for a government that will pay all our nurses, ambos, teachers, police, firefighters, etc, the same wage that politicians get with the same regular increases in income. (They should never have to go cap in hand to the government for paltry pay rises.) The people that provide these services are JUST as important to our democratic life as the pollies and should be paid accordingly.
BUT, I won’t hold my breath!! -
Marie Leaf RN-BC CCM November 30, 2011
The posts are all very interesting. I am going on 62 and have worked in nursing since I was a candy striper at 16, then a nurse’s aide while I went to nursing school, student nurse and finally RN in 1970. I have lives all over the USA in many different jobs from prisons to baby nursery. I am a Nationally Certified Case Manager for over 8 years. I work for peanuts as they say. I worked very hard with a high patient load and total care when some dumb ass got that bright idea. One night I had 46 patients with an LPN and an aide. 2/3 were total care. Now I have degenerative disc disease throughout my back, fibromyalgia with severe chronic pain and I still work 2 days a week in home care and actually feel better when I do. My point is I and all other nurses should be paid as well as a plumber at least! We handle at least as much feces as they do and are rather experts in tubing, finding and fixing leaks and flushing systems,
Girls get the money while you are young enough to enjoy it! Demand vacation time to recuperate, Never do a double, never lift over 15 pounds, eat you lunch in sitting position away from the ward. Demand patient ratios by acuity of need. I f we keep doing it the way they want us to we will be broken old women and it sets a bad tone for the younger nurses who will quit and there will just be us old codgers. Whatever it takes to make patient care safer for all, do it. Just do it. Stick together,-
corinne grant November 30, 2011
What wonderful advice Marie.
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Jane F December 9, 2011
Absolutely! The thing is – if we don’t look out for one another it seems that no one else will. Well, except for people like Corrine who are responsible journalists and say it like it is – thanks so much Corrine.
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Julie Coulthard November 30, 2011
Thank you Corinne.
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MrsP2011 November 30, 2011
Why oh why do we have to keep going down this path of people who provide essential services having to fight tooth and nail to earn a decent living. As long as I can remember the issues that always come up at election time and that voters always have at the top of their list as being the most important are health, policing, ambulance, public transport, roads and infrastructure. At every election every damned politician in the country promises big things on these issues and after every election every damned government that gets into power manages to shelve the major issues that we voted them in on. I don’t care if nurses strike, more power to them. And more power to our police and ambulance personnel if they go down that path as well. And anyone else who has a duty of care to the safety of passengers ie firefighters, bus drivers, train drivers, airline pilots. The sooner that businesses and organisations stop implementing the bean counter’s mantra that says unless you are producing dollars you will stay at the bottom of the food chain, the healthier and happier our workforce will be. As an example, law firms are one of the biggest offenders and adopt the practice with gusto. The demarcation line between the lawyers who bill their clients obscenely and the administrative staff who do not bill, is discriminatory and contemptible. The same discrimination with regard to salaries is extended to essential services people such as nurses, police etc just because they are not producing. With regard to patient ratios, they should never be allowed to reach 10:1. That is a recipe for disaster. According to my calculations, in an 8 hour shift that would equate to a nurse allocating approximately 48 minutes to each patient – MAX. That’s not taking into account a well-deserved tea and lunch or dinner break and the writing up of patient notes and hand overs at the end of shift. And health issues! I agree with Marie, back problems for one thing – big problem. No matter how much a nurse practices good and safe OH&S lifting techniques, eventually it will take its toll and come back to bite them in the long term. I’m glad you tackled this issue Corinne. Job well done. And nurses, down tools until you get what you want.
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Julie December 1, 2011
Just heard this morning that the government is getting a large excessive payrise!!!!
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Julie east December 1, 2011
I have nursed in the public and private sector for 41 years and i have just retired. My heart goes out to the nursing staff now as i can only see patient care going down to the very basic care of drips drugs and dressings if they get time. Gone will be the care of the dying and the frightened patient waiting for a major operation and just some words of reassurance time to spend with families waiting for news,scared people commencing chemo and invasive treatment. I worry for my own care as i grow older and my husband God help us all.
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Joanne Powell December 1, 2011
I am an ex vic, this year, now nursing in Far North QLD, I am disgusted with what the Vic Govt is even attempting to consider, we cannot provide timely adequate, legal patient care with a ration of 10:1, we are not super human. We care, we are legally responsible, we want to be the best patient advocates, we want to get up every day and nurse our patients, BUT there is a fine line between loving our job and the job killing us and not loving us.
The prime minister has received a massive $90,000 2011 pay rise, she is now paid more than the US president and we can’t maintain 4:1 nurse patient ratios. So wrong, so wrong, so wrong. Wakeup Government, we are already having trouble with retaining experienced mature gals and guys in the nursing workforce, this is the icing on the cake, thank god I’ve immigrated North, we have better pay and magnificent conditions and a Qld health system that cares for its staff and patients. -
jean December 1, 2011
staff ratios of 1:10 will most certainly increase productivity and reduce costs — if empty beds are the aim –
patients will be leaving in droves mostly in body bags!!!
julie east says it all–its sad that nurses wont be missed untill you need one -
Debora December 1, 2011
Thank you Corrine…
It was also nice to have met you in Ubud recently at Cafe Luna
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Evelyn December 9, 2011
Thank you corrine!!!
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Rosemary H December 9, 2011
Well said. Thank you Corrine.
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Deborah December 9, 2011
I agree Corrine. No arguments here, at all. These people are essential. And it is shameful they don’t get paid well for the extremely responsible jobs they do. And to expect one nurse to manage ten patients is terrifying.
Marie Leaf. I have to make a stand here and let everyone know that I know that plumbers don’t get paid like they used to. My son is a plumber and he’s never earned big money. He runs his own small business (just himself) and along with not being able to charge as much as people think plumbers are charging he has to pay insurances, manage GST, bookeeping, run a van fully fitted out with expensive equipment and other expensives I could bore you with. It might have been true that they earned the big bucks years ago but not so anymore. My son’s wife has mentioned to me that when someone asks her what her husband does and she says ‘plumbing’ that they assume they are rolling in dollars. They are not and both of them work outside the home to support themselves and their kids. And they are certainly not living on a grand scale in any way.
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Michelle December 9, 2011
Thank- you! Thank- you! Thank-you!!! Finally, someone who tells the truth about what nurses do
and why in the heck is it so hard to get paid what we are worth, and maintain safe patient ratios? I love my job, but what this government is doing to this profession makes me so angry and at the same time so very sad. I often go without breaks, or even toilet breaks to look after my patients. I just appreciate what you have said. It means so much -
Carol December 9, 2011
Have needed to explain to many people that it is NOT just about the payrise but the patient ratios 1:4 which means safe quality care of the patients…and is needed for the patients in the future as well. I have spent 30 years in nursing, bad back and all, mainly because I love to help people and the many thanks nurses get is a great reward as well and makes one feel so appreciated. If we went 1:8 or 10, one would be unable to provide good care and support to patients and relatives….and I for one would be cutting down my shifts to cope! and short shifts and split shifts, NO WAY!
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Cecile December 9, 2011
Thank you Corrine, As Nurses and Midwives we care for those who have no one else who cares, Our jobs are so full on in so many ways we just want some RESPECT and acknowlegement.
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Lizzy December 9, 2011
Thank you so much! It’s so heartening to read an article that states the truth about nurses and this ongoing issue. As an RN, this whole saga is so demeaning, offensive and sad. If I was to only read ‘mainstream’ media, I think I would have given up by now. Thank you again!
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Meave December 9, 2011
To think that in the 2000 EBA, Victoria pioneered the first mandated minimum nurse-patient ratios, and ten years later Vic nurses are having to fight tooth-and-nail to retain them at safe levels!
Although I’m only coming up for my fourth year working in nursing, I’m not going to wait for the bad back before I throw in the towel. Why would young people choose to work in a profession that continues to be undervalued, is physically damaging and that is basically becoming an administrative job (with the ever-growing amount of paperwork!)
When smart-alec doctors call me ‘militant’ for wearing my red t-shirt, I’m going to quote Corinne:
“If it is acceptable that large companies, business owners and governments can form powerful associations and interest groups in an effort to protect themselves, then the people they employ should have the same right.” -
Deb December 10, 2011
It’s good to know that we are thought so little of as a profession. I’m sick of hearing the catch phrase “if you pay peanuts you get monkeys” when the government tries to justify their enormous pay rises. (funnily enough we now have the best paid politians and we still have a bunch of apes in power! But that’s another issue). The same must be said for nurses. I’ve been a nurse in a busy ED for 26 year and the level of violence and danger has skyrocketed in that time. I’ve been assaulted, stabbed, bitten, threatened. Had my family threatened and all for very little pay in the scheme of things. I’m still glad to be a nurse because at least my family will be well cared for. I feel sorry and scared for the general public who don’t have a nurse in their lives because the govt wants them to do it alone.
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Danielle December 10, 2011
Articles like this bring a tear to my eye. As a nurse of 11 years it always overwhelms me when we get support like this. I hope most people know although the government obvously don’t appreciate us we know the majority of Victoria does. We don’t do it for the money (if we did we clearly picked the wrong job) we do it for the need to care and we don’t want to lose the time to care. A little aside for the record 1:4 is the ratio for day shift in metropoliten and major rural hospitals but many smaller hospitals have Higher ratios and night duty is 1:8. Sick people often do not sleep overnight so the car needs continue. Add more patients to that and people spend more time in wet beds, in pain or even just alone when they are scared and in need of comfort.
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jodie December 10, 2011
thank you corrine it means so much to me that you take the time to write this. it is great to see we have some public support it means everything in this war against our government for resepct. Thank you so much.
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Kat December 10, 2011
A very well written article. Thank you for your fantastic words and support Corrine. I’m just a baby nurse, having graduated 2 years ago, and already I’m tired, stressed and dealing with a bad back. Oh, and I work in mental health. We currently don’t have ratios in MH and the govt is trying to stop us from getting them. Shame on them. 1:5 Victorians will suffer from mental illness in their lives, and will likely need a skilled RPN to care for them. Replacing RPNs and psych ENs with unskilled workers is a recipe for disaster. As it is we deal with aggression and violence on a daily basis in our acute inpatient unit. Often the only thing that calms a situation is the de-escalation skills of a trained psych nurse, but sometimes even that isn’t enough. Police get “dangerous conditions” allowances – why don’t nurses? In my very short career I’ve already been bitten, kicked, slapped and had my life threatened. My wage in no way compensates me for that. But I carry on because I care for the mental health and wellbeing of my patients, the people of Victoria.
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Rachel December 10, 2011
I left nursing almost 7 years ago. I was working in a major ED & the pressure on the system was bad enough then that I decided I was too young to be stuck in a system that was going to use & abuse me & then when something went wrong (which I was certain would happen) I would be out on my own, that was not why I became a nurse. This year I tried doing some regular nursing shifts in an ED. After 4 months I stopped, the same reasons I originally left were still there but worse. A pay rise nurses definitely deserve. To keep ratio’s should be a given, it is for the safety of the public. Hearing the media write false story over and over makes my blood boil. At least there are some people in the media who write the truth! Well done!
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Jan December 12, 2011
I’m a nurse and have been for 30 years. I put my car in to get serviced the other week and for the 4 hours it took to service it cost me almost a weeks wages. Obviously mechanics are more valuable than nurses.
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alison December 12, 2011
I work in a major referral hospital for a country area of victoria. I have worked for over 12 years. At work, i have been punched, kicked, spat at, vomited and urinated on, i have cleaned excrement from wall, floors and beds. I have been threatened, I have been stabbed.
On the other hand, i have considered it a priveledge to hold the hand of a dying patient.
I drive 60km going to and from work. There is no public transport i can use, i dont live in a town.
If split shfts are introduced… i dont know what i will do.. i cant afford four trips to work in a day.
I work shifts that disrupt a normal life… i dont think i have celebrated christmas day with my family in years… i work many nights…its said working shift work can take 20 years off your life span… there are shifts where at the end of the drive home, i fall asleep in the car in the driveway, the effort of getting out of the car to open the front gate is just too much.
But I still come back to work the next shift, because if i dont they may not be able to find a nurse to cover my shift, someone else couold feel forced to work a double shift to help out, or god forbid, the shift will work short staffed..,. ratios… what ratios… if you cant close a bed, or find an extra staff member then what else can you do…
why woud anyone willingly do shift work knowing all of these things.
thats the reality of nursing -
k kaudla December 17, 2011
I don’t think nurses work harder than other workers in Victoria. Also, Aus nurses are the highest paid in the world. It is cruel to vulnerable people to use threats of strikes by nurses.
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alison January 9, 2012
In reply to k. kaudla…
who said anything about nurses working harder then other workers…? But Nursing is certainly exhausting both mentally and physically…
Victorian nurses are certainly not the highest paid in the world…not even in australia… that’s why so many of them go overseas or interstate…should try going to dubai…
When the university graduate nurse, in charge of your life… or your mother’s life or your childs… is paid less then your plumber, or your car repair person, how would you feel??
K do you understand what a full care patient is? Would you like to wait for your meals, because there are 4 others who need to be fed as well, or how about going to the toilet? Nurses cant be in 5 places at once!
And just to repeat, there was no strike… rostered nurses turned up for their rostered shift..they did not stop work… beds were shut but only if there was not a person waiting for admission who it was judged to need it… and it was a pretty wide definition…
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JessB December 19, 2011
Corinne, I’m so glad to find you here! I loved your book and am delighted to read more of your writing.
Interesting to get your perspective on the nurses battle, I do hope they get what they need, although they may have to compromise a little. Hopefully not to the tune of ten patients though! If I was in hospital, I wouldn’t want my nurse to be looking after 9 other people as well as me.
Surely that has to be the base-case we look at? ‘What would I accept if it was me, or a member of my family?’ I would want my family to be well-looked after by a properly trained nurse.
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Michelle Temminghoff December 19, 2011
Our governments hate to pay women for what they think we do ‘naturally’ and traditionally, for free. It’s about time nurses were valued for what they do as well as who they are. I wrote a (very short) blog on the subject and I’d love it if you had a read.
http://passionfruitthesensualityshop.blogspot.com/2011/11/day-18-blog-feted-hated.html -
Tara Nipe January 9, 2012
In response to K. Kaudla’s comment that it “is cruel to vulnerable people to use threats of strikes by nurses”- alison (Jan 9) has addressed the fact that Victorian nurses last withdrew labout in 1986, a quarter of a century ago. I would like to address the underlying idea about our industrial action in this statement.
Were there other options available, nurses would be delighted to never have to take industrial action. Sadly, we are currently faced with a government that is not interested in negotiating. Mr Baillieu wants to reduce our conditions well past the point of safety, make us legally responsible for the actions of minimally-trained staff, and introduce unlimited short and broken shifts.
Nurses trying to protect the lives of patients and the integrity of our health care system are looking at the big picture. If you think closing beds that opened immediately for emergency admissions was cruel, you’re in for a nasty shock. As we can see from the UK experience, replacing nurses with PCWs results in a significant deterioration of care, and concomittant increase in avoidable complications like pressure ulcers, wound infections, falls, unnoticed deterioration, ICU admissions and deaths. A government that knows these facts and still wants to take steps that will, not may, lead to these outcomes? They’re being cruel to vulnerable people. -
MrsP2011 February 10, 2012
I too remember what happened in NSW in the late 1980s, the last major attempt by nurses to get support from the government. It resulted in a crisis for our hospitals with a massive amount of nurses leaving the system. The government’s response – they wooed nurses from overseas to come and take the jobs – and they did. Shame on the government and Ted Ballieu. History repeating itself? I’d say so.
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Faye February 12, 2012
How many years would I get for kidnapping Bailieu and putting him in a public ward for a week to see how hard nurses work???? I doubt he has ever been to hospital in his life, and if then, a private one, where even there nurses are run off their feet.
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MrsP2011 February 13, 2012
Faye, I’ll help you. He’s too smug for his own good. There are two things I really can’t tolerate in politicians – arrogance and smugness – and he’s got both!
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Nick February 22, 2012
We all work hard
Nurses do work hard – Now I am prepared to pay more taxes so they can pay Nurses more.
How many of the do gooders are prepared to do the same?
If not where do they sugest the state govenment get the money from. Bracks did so by spending the money saved by kennet for what is now eastlink where we who live in the east pay for. -
in the know February 13, 2013
What is it that causes nurses to lie about working conditions, stress in the workplace, who it is that is bullying them, the wages they earn, how many nurses left the system in the 1980s strike (which would truthfully be none). They are well paid from the first day they are “on the job”, they are well known for their crude behaviour, lazy, rude attitude and the fact that they feel that patient care in general is beneath their dignity. They are following hot on the heels of British nurses- the nurses that had to be told by their Prime Minister to “care for your patients”. Bring Mr Cameron over here for s tint as PM. Bailleau has no guts he is terrified of big Left Wing Unions.
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sue Bell February 13, 2013
Two stays in hospital last year, strangely I saw and heard no rude behaviour, no laziness, no attitude that nursing me was below them. So In The Know, where do you get your information from, from your political party?
I had caring, compassionate and very friendly nursing in a public hospital. Not once did I feel neglected, looked down on or not worthy of their nursing. My concerns were listened to and acted on as were my neighbours in the ward. These women were over worked and definitely underpaid. I support nurses action for good patient ratios, better pay and condition. And if nurses do procedures that used to be only done by doctors they need and deserve recognition of their upgraded skill with extra certification and pay, this especially applies to nurses in far flung rural areas where the doctor is on the other end of a radio phone and at least three hours flight away.
