Aged care nurses take action
Aged care nurses and nursing assistants in Victoria have voted to take unprecedented industrial action to address ongoing problems in aged care. Branches of the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) in other states are also looking at ways to deal with the understaffed Commonwealth-funded aged care sector. The action in Victoria is an example of how desperate the situation has become. At their meeting on October 25, ANF Victorian Branch members working in aged care expressed their "utmost dismay at the failure of the Howard Government to recognise and take responsibility for rectifying the crisis in aged care in Victoria." This crisis left the ANF "with no choice but to adopt strategies to ensure that care can be delivered safely in the circumstances." The meeting endorsed the right of every nurse as of October the 29, to refuse to work unreasonable overtime, including double shifts. Nurses will not admit new residents into private or public residential aged care facilities unless a full roster of appropriately qualified staff is guaranteed at least 48 hours in advance. Nurses will also refuse to work unpaid overtime and will not do any non- nursing work where it conflicts with nursing duties. "Aged care nurses can't close beds and they can't walk off the job and leave a skeleton staff behind because they are already working below a safe skeleton staff level", said ANF Branch Secretary, Belinda Morieson. "How could you walk off the job when some nursing hostels don't even have one nurse on each shift?" Ms Morieson said there was strong community support for the nurses' action because of the many people who have a relative or loved one in aged care. She said aged care nurses and their assistants are outraged that while the Prime Minister and the minister responsible for aged care, Bronwyn Bishop, agree there is a nurse shortage, they deny that this is having an adverse effect on resident care. "Elderly residents have chronic and terminal illnesses, require regular complex medication, require wound dressings and constant assessments of their vital signs for changes in their condition", Ms Morieson pointed out. "During a registered nurse shortage these tasks are carried out by registered nurses who have done double or treble shifts or worked 14 days straight. Or they are done by someone who has no training or qualifications. "I challenge Mr Howard and Mrs Bishop to explain why resident health care is not important to them. Do they think it's safe for an unqualified worker to give a diabetic an insulin injection?"