As many as two-thirds of nurses and midwives in New South Wales regularly consider quitting, while almost half have started looking for an alternative occupation.
These concerning figures come from a new report released today from the University of Sydney Business School and the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association. It found nurses and midwives across NSW urgently need better flexibility and control over their hours, rosters and shifts.
The report, Choice, Voice and Control, is based on a survey of over 2,000 public sector nurses and midwives, as well as 15 focus groups and 13 one-on-one interviews.
“Nurses and midwives are essential to the health and wellbeing of our communities and the functioning of our healthcare system. In this study, they told us they need flexibility and want better control over rosters and shifts, more manageable workloads, and work that lets them have a life,” said lead author Professor Rae Cooper, Director of the Australian Centre for Gender Equality and Inclusion @ Work.
“A sustainable workplace provides what we call ‘good flex’: predictability, support and genuine choice. This is different from ‘bad flex’, where workers are expected to absorb unpredictable hours or changes to their working time.
“Flexibility is only good when it works for both workers and employers, and this is a key retention factor in feminised, frontline workforces like nursing.”
Without “good flex”, nurses and midwives are left with overwhelming workloads, overtime, fatigue, exhaustion, career disadvantages and even plans to leave the profession, the report states.
Chronic understaffing, overwhelming workloads, and an undersupply of good flex simultaneously cause, and are caused, by each other, the researchers noted.
“With better access to good flex, nurses and midwives would experience higher wellbeing and less risk of burnout. This flows through to benefits for employers, who are better able to attract and retain skilled staff, easing understaffing issues and helping to build more sustainable workforce capability,” Associate Professor Josh Healy said.
“Without changes in work design that enable more sustainable workforce management, our public hospitals will continue to struggle to hold onto their nurses and midwives – including the most experienced of these staff, who are essential to high-quality care.
“Without reform we will continue to invest in training skilled nurses and midwives who do not stay in the profession, and we will continue to deter people who might otherwise like to become nurses and midwives.”
Many nurses and midwives told the researchers they were expressed concern about the high number of skilled, senior nurses and midwives they had seen exit their jobs. It poses serious workload issues and problems around training and knowledge transmission, they said.
There are clear implications for the NSW government, co-author Dr Elsie Foeken said, especially when it comes to attracting and retaining its nursing workforce. She said many nurses and midwives “are desperately holding on and hoping for things to improve”.
They are at risk of quitting or burning out due to the overwhelming demands of the job, Dr Foeken said.
“Small changes could make a big difference: more opportunities to swap shifts, changing start and finish times, access to paid leave for appointments and consistent managerial support.”
Supporting the female-dominated workforce to manage their caring and personal responsibilities outside of work was key to the reform needed, Michael Whaites, General Secretary of the NSWNMA, said.
“We know that the lack of roster flexibility, unsustainable workloads and poor work-life balance is leading to burnout and the loss of highly experienced nurses and midwives from the industry,” Mr Whaites said.
“We are calling on the NSW Government and NSW Health to work collaboratively with us to improve flexibility and workloads which will lead to a healthier and happier workforce.”