Fewer than half of primary care nurses who have suggested they could do more complex work have been given the chance to do so.
Fewer than half of primary care nurses who have suggested they could do more complex work have been given the chance to do so, research shows.
Since realising through a high school volunteering stint that she enjoyed talking with people and giving back to the community, Romy Blacklaw knew that nursing was the job for her.
But the 28-year-old’s career to date, beginning in her hometown of Sydney before shifting to the Sunshine Coast, has not been without occasional frustrations.
There are times when she thinks she could have done more to help her patients, if only some previous employers had allowed her to.
“Nurses often do a lot of the jobs that no-one else wants to do and do get satisfaction from patient feedback and that type of thing,” Ms Blacklaw told AAP.
“But I think I have, in the past, felt unrecognised or undervalued by employers.”
Helping to create care plans for people with chronic illnesses is one task she believes she could have helped with in the past, had she not received some pushback from doctors.
“I guess they don’t maybe realise that there is quite a bit of training that nurses usually have before they start running those clinics.
Ms Blacklaw is not alone in feeling that she has sometimes been under-utilised, according to a fresh survey of more than 2000 nurses working in primary health care, which includes those in general practices.
Almost half of nurses (47.5 per cent) surveyed had suggested to an employer they could undertake more complex clinical activities. But less than half of them (42 per cent) were permitted to.
The research comes from the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association and a new mutual bank – the Health Professionals Bank – which is aimed at catering to the specific needs of the workforce.
APNA President Karen Booth says nurses being able to fully utilise their skills is important for their job satisfaction.
“It means people have a say and there’s less turnover, and people enjoy the type of work they do much more,” she told AAP.
Job satisfaction among nurses is particularly important considering Australia is heading towards having too few of them, she stressed.
The shortfall is expected to reach 100,000 by 2030.
Helping nurses use their potential is also better for the health system, Ms Booth believes.
“They can do lots of care that would free up GPs, in particular, who can then see the acute patients coming in,” she said.
Better education for both doctors and Australians broadly about what nurses are capable of doing could help turn things around, she believes.
So too could changing health funding models to ensure that the work nurses do isn’t always classified in a fee-for-service context.
The customer-owned Health Professionals Bank launched on Tuesday is a subsidiary of Teachers Mutual Bank and will offer industry-specific features such as flexible banking options to accommodate shift work.
“We understand the unique needs of the health professionals we serve,” the bank’s general manager Carolyn Murphy says.