Comments on: Are graduate nurses’ workforce ready?

By: Nicola Lessing

Nicola Lessing — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 07:07:38 +0000

You raise some interesting points here. It is not only in nursing that we have poor role models in self-care but at home, in our families and at school. So this lack of self-care is something that I expect you would find in all workplaces. Self-care is essential and should be a part of any curriculum but only taught by people who actually practice it. If you don’t look after yourself how can you look after anyone else? On the subject of work ready, I trained as a nurse at a London Teaching Hospital in the 70s. We learnt on the job and jumped straight in the deep end. We spent 3 months on every different kind of ward with small blocks of study between each rotation. I am sure it was a MUCH better system than the Uni one you have in Australia.

By: Jen Smith

Jen Smith — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 06:27:37 +0000

Nursing is truly an amazing and unique profession. Broad in it’s application, intimate in the way we work with people, scientific in how we approach our work and very hands on and practical. We can be highly specialised or a jack of all trades. Our new graduates are the future of nursing, leaders, clinicians and mangers. Exactly what all of us in nursing do now. However if we look at our current health status nursing is not travelling so well. If I look at my own work place sick leave is everyday, we have people off for a long time for treatments, we have difficulty replacing staff because staff are simply not wanting to come to work for extra shifts. Workloads and skill mix are all very important, but is this all? How are we supporting our young when we really struggle to do this for ourselves. Self-Care has to be foundational in any nurse training. Supporting them as people first just makes sense, because we see so much in nursing. I particularly like this from Fiona Lotherington…”Whatever it is for each student, they need to be supported to identify and grow these qualities, so they know their value and what they are delivering, along with the medications and procedures. This, combined with a self-caring way of life would set each student nurse up with a solid foundation, ready for anything” When we really start to look at this is nursing, nursing will change as will the way we are with our patients.

By: Amber Fromherheart

Amber Fromherheart — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 10:09:16 +0000

I am just completing my last prac and feeling very stressed and barely or only just making the required (what ever that is?) level of ability to enter the workforce.
I have had little feedback that is empowering and feel like the only thing that gets noticed are the mistakes I make. I feel a lot of pressure as I want to feel confident to enter the work force and without positive support or encouragement by those who are experienced I don’t know whether I am of value? I know I have very valuable qualities as a nurse and am very capable and careful in safety and assessment but the pressure of time management and realistic expectation of developing speed and efficiency – takes time. This to me has a great impact on my confidence as a nurse and as a team member. I do not want to put more pressure on the already over burdened staff and or be going home having feeling even tho all the main boxes (hopefully) are ticked the quality of care is compromised due to time constraints. The staffing level i have found is very often not adequate for the patient need levels or the student need levels. I am paying to be educated as a student, paying to do a placement to be fit for work in an environment that is overburdened and too demanding for its adequate requirements.