Health Workforce Australia (HWA) is currently in the process of assessing nursing retention and productivity in Australia. Their previously released report showed that unless action is taken, Australia is on track to have a shortage of 109,000 nurses by 2025. HWA has identified the retention and productivity of nurses as two of the significant factors leading to this projected shortage.

HWA had its online consultation open for feedback until 30th April 2013, and also held a workshop with key stakeholders in April. These consultations are mainly expected to help HWA to identify the priority issues that need to be addressed immediately to further improve nurse retention and productivity and to identify any other pre-existing programs across the country that are proving to be quite effective in meeting this goal.

So what has come out of the study so far?

During the initial phase of the study, stakeholders were asked to identify key issues surrounding nursing retention and productivity and outline effective innovations and practices they had put in place to address the problem. The main issues that emerged in these consultations include a need for:
•    Effective preparation for practice
•    Adoption of more productive work practices
•    A more effective leadership and practice environment

Once all the phases of the project are completed and finalized any feedback and recommendations collected from both the stakeholders and general public will be compiled into a comprehensive final report. To learn more about the progress of this program, you can check out Health Workforce Australia’s web page for this program.