KEY POINTS:
Forty per cent of staff nurses in New Zealand hospital general wards leave their jobs each year, costing hospitals an average of nearly $25,000 to replace each one.
The study by Auckland University on nurse turnover at the country's public hospitals also found that hospital wards employ two nurses fewer, on average, than budgeted.
Have you quit nursing? Here is a selection of Your Views:
Darryn Appleton
As a former house surgeon from New Zealand who now works in the US, I have noticed a number of differences between the conditions for nurses in each country. Firstly, the salary for nurses is much better in the US. Even senior nurses in New Zealand don't get a fraction of the compensation they deserve for the critical role they play in health care compared to the international market. Threatened strike action in the past has usually resulted in a media-generated backlash against nurses for daring to strike, weakening their position dramatically. The old addage is that if you pay peanuts, you are going to get monkeys. This creates a vicious cycle whereby fewer and fewer candidates (who may otherwise make excellent nurses) choose this profession, choosing instead careers where salary is better and job satisfaction is higher. Existing nurses become more and more over-worked as fewer New Zealand graduates come through, more of their colleagues leave and their workload has to increase for little or no extra pay, and so the cycle continues. The cycle needs to be broken, and working conditions, respect for nurses and salary are the cornerstones of turning things around.
Stace
My sister was a nurse and recently packed up and left for Australia after working for just one year. She had bad hours, bad pay and would come home often upset because of patients being nasty to her when she was doing all she could with not enough staff. No wonder she went to Oz where she gets better hours, twice the pay and patients actually respect you.
HRH
Just thought I would add that studies show the number one reason why people leave most organisations is because of the relationship with their manager. The number one reason why they stay is the relationship with their peers. I would suggest that maybe there are the obvious reasons, OEs etc, for the high turnover, but looking a little deeper and you will find a huge gap in the Health Sector as in most industries in terms of the whole "People Management" competency.
Former Nurse (Auckland)
This topic has me so frustrated, I can hardly think straight. I have been a nurse for over 10 years and the last four of those years I have worked in New Zealand. I recently quit my job because I would rather work in a cafe or a pub than work in the current conditions at my hospital. On our last contract negotiated by NZNO we were promised big changes. I can say that nothing at my place of employment changed except I received a substandard pay rise. Staffing remains unsafe at times, work loads often unmanageable, management unresponsive and the work place is often hostile. Bullying is common and we are treated like cogs in a machine. Nurses have no voice in the decisions made on our behalf and our professional input is often actively discouraged. Currently, we have been working for 6 months with no contact and by the time it is settled, it will be another 3 months at least until we receive our back pay. Visit the NZNO website and there have been no updates regarding negotiations since late April. It is one big farce and I refuse be made a fool any longer.
Concerned Nurse (Christchurch)
High staff turnover in the health sector often has workplace bullying behind it. When I, as a Unit Manager and Nurse Specialist, spoke to management about my own experience of workplace bullying in a New Zealand hospital, management then harassed and fired me stating that I was incompatible with the workplace. I was condemned for understanding and speaking out about bullying behaviour repeatedly occurring in the unit in which I worked. I now work in private practice and note my old unit is still operating a high staff turnover. New research by the University of Western Sydney has found that some nurses are abusing patients and compromising hospital care as part of their bullying attacks on other nurses. According to one of the chief researchers, Associate Professor Margaret Vickers, "In most cases, the bullying was so bad the targeted nurses abandoned the nursing profession, taking lower-paid jobs and pay cuts of up to $40,000 a year." Workplace bullying isn't firm management in the same way that domestic violence isn't firm parenting.
Concerned Nurse (North Shore)
I left hospital nursing 12 years ago when I couldn't cope with the constant demands both mentally and physically working in a short staffed high dependency area with little support and poor monetary reward. I have continued to work in the medical arena in the corporate environment and have been rewarded with a supportive and satisfying career receiving the monetary rewards commensurate with my education and experience. Nurses thought they had received a huge salary increase a few years ago with the 20 per cent increase but in effect this equated to a 4 per cent per annum rise given the 2 years delay in getting the increase and the following freeze on pay claims. The Nursing Council is managed by an antiquated group of nurses with little idea about how business should be managed in the 21st century, so there is little hope for the nurses and the public in the health system.
Nurses should be represented by someone with enough nouse to obtain the conditions and rewards that the nurses rightly deserve. The thought of becoming a patient in the present health system is very frightening.
JDD (Bay of Plenty)
Frustration with bullying and incompetent nurse leaders were a factor in my leaving ward nursing after 15 years. After working for three months in Australia as a nurse I am sad to say the biggest difference was that in NZ nurses are treated as a liability and in Australia treated as an asset by the management.
