Nursing graduate programs – should we be calling on aged care facilities, community nursing organisations and general practice to offer more positions?
It’s the time of year when nursing graduates are scrambling to be chosen for the limited number of graduate nursing program positions available in hospitals throughout Australia.
But if you look at the statistics, while almost 64% of Australia’s nurses and midwives who are working as a clinician work in a hospital, this means that there are 46% who don’t. Almost 25% of nursing and midwifery clinicians work in a residential health care facility (13.17%), community health setting (7.54%) or in general practice (3.74%).
Wouldn’t it make sense that if aged care, community health and general practice are the biggest employers of nurses after you take hospitals out of the equation, that they would be the most obvious organisations to seriously consider offering graduate programs?
The following table has been adapted from Table 10 of the Australian Institute of Health & Welfare’s National Health Workforce Data Set called “Nursing and midwifery workforce 2014.” It shows the percentage of employed nurses working as clinicians and non-clinicians in Australia in 2014, as well as the work setting of their main job and the average weekly hour worked:
The Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation campaign for jobs
The Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation (ANMF) has recently been campaigning for more jobs for nurses and midwives, including graduates:
9,100 nurses & midwives are looking for work, yet Australia will face a shortage of more than 80,000 nurses by 2025….
Posted by Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation on Tuesday, 11 August 2015
The data for the ANMF’s campaign has come from the recently released Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report which says:
- In 2014 there were 9,110 nurses and midwives looking for work, which was up from 8,151 in 2013 (and previous data showed that it was around 4,500 in 2011)
“Whilst the number of registered nurses and midwives has risen 7%, from 330,680 in 2011 to 353,000 last year, indicating that we’re on track with supply, the number of well-educated, qualified nurses and midwives looking for work is increasing,” ANMF Federal Secretary, Lee Thomas, said today.
“The number of jobless nurses and midwives has doubled in three years and that’s a worrying trend. And it’s not just concerning for the ANMF and our members, if we’re not getting our newly qualified nurses and midwives into the workforce, that’s very concerning for the future of health care in Australia.”
ANMF Federal Secretary, Lee Thomas, said it’s still hard to comprehend that we have 9,000 nurses and midwives looking for work when it’s estimated that Australia faces a shortage of more than 80,000 nurses by 2025. Mr Thomas added that in order to make genuine improvements, we need more political commitment.
Perhaps the ANMF should also consider lobbying residential health care facilities, community health centres and general practices to consider employing graduate nurses and create a formal 1 year grad program where graduates can work alongside more experienced staff?
But looking at the statistics shows a different story?
Let’s focus on the data that has been released with respect to registered nurses. More data released by the AIHW recently says that Australia wide, the number of registered nurses:
- increased by 8.5% between 2011 and 2014, while the number of enrolled nurses decreased by 1.3%
- looking for work was 2,965 in 2011, 2,967 in 2012, 5,788 in 2013 and 6,535 in 2014
According to the AIHW, the roles being undertaken by registered nurses changed significantly in some areas. Between 2011 and 2014:
- Clinician roles increased by 17.8% from 186,658 to 220,062
- Non-clinician roles dropped by over 40% (45,820 to 27,229)
- “Other” roles dropped dramatically from 18,494 to 1,035
- Administrator roles dropped slightly (14,813 to 14,279)
- Teacher/educator roles dropped from 10,044 to 9,323
- Researcher roles increased slightly from 2,470 to 2,582
We can see from this that it’s the “clinician”, the “non-clinician” and the “other” categories that showed the most change in the last 3 years. There has been a shift from non-clinician and other roles towards clinical roles. Let’s have a look at the detailed full-time equivalent number of registered nurses employed in Australia from 2011 to 2014 in these 3 categories:
The numbers show that there has been a large number of registered nurses in every age group who have either left the profession or shifted into a clinical role from a “non-clinical” or “other” role. So while the ANMF often campaigns for jobs for nurses by means of advocating for smaller nurse to patient ratios in hospitals, and, so they should for patient safety and due to the sheer number of nurses that would be employed if these ratios were put in place, that may not help the nursing graduate who is today checking their email 100 times to see if there is any word regarding a nursing grad program in a hospital. These graduates are having to do everything they can to put their best foot forward in order to secure one of these highly sought-after positions in a very competitive landscape.
If I were one of these graduates right now today, apart from looking into the aforementioned potential for employment in aged care facilities, community health and general practice, I would be asking around to find out what these “non-clinical” and “other” roles might be. Do you know someone who currently has or has had a non-traditional role in nursing? Can you ask them what the role entailed and see if you might be able to develop the required skills if you don’t have them already and apply for a similar role?
If I were one of the universities training registered nurses, I would be looking long and hard at the AIHW numbers and seeing what skills other than clinical skills that are relevant to a hospital you can be helping your students to develop that are relevant in the wider nursing workforce moving forwards, and offering those in the form of elective subjects or different streams. Surely at the very least there could be an aged care stream and a community health stream? And that’s not even getting started on potential non-clinical roles.
If I were a high school student considering a career in nursing, I would want to gather as much information as I could about what’s happening in the profession. I would be looking at which universities have the highest graduate employment rate and why this is the case. Is it the number of clinical placement hours they offer, the links to industry they have, or the skills they are equipping their graduates with? I would have a game plan for where you see yourself in the profession upon graduating. In order to formulate this plan, I would also be speaking with a number of people in the profession so you have a full understanding on what’s on the horizon.
It’s horrible to think that people go into a nursing degree sold on the old idea that “there are always jobs for nurses” and are crushed when they find out that “the jobs are really for experienced nurses.”
Amanda Griffiths – Founder My Health Career.
More articles and resources on My Health Career:
1 replies to “Nursing graduate programs – should we be calling on aged care facilities, community nursing organisations and general practice to offer more positions?”
I graduated from CSU in Bathurst with a duel degree in Nursing/Paramedics. According to the myuni website, CSU nursing program is meant to have a 98% employment rate. Im not sure where these stats come from, but a vast number of nursing graduates, myself included are unable to find work. I haven’t been able to secure employment as a Paramedic either and I also have a background in Nutrition and worked as an AIN throughout my uni degree.
It appears to me that the younger you are the more likely you are of gaining employment. I chose this career to be able to having a rewarding and fulfillng job where I can make a difference. I studied which uni to chose, even completing a double degree to give myself a better chance. And so it seems that didn’t pay off. Now I have gone back to uni (a different uni) to complete a degree in a whole different field. There’s no jobs in healthcare.