The country’s leading primary and community health
membership organisation, the Federation
of Primary Health, is pleased with the Government’s
announcement today but stresses more must be done as quickly
as possible to address workforce issues.
Federation
board member and Executive Director of the New Zealand
College of Nurses, Professor Jenny Carryer, says importing
nurses is not the answer, and the recruitment campaign
announced today doesn’t seem to address the financial
stress current students are already
facing.
“There’s a global shortage of at least 12
million nurses and another 4 million nurses
are expected to retire in the next 10 years so we really
should be growing our own workforce rather than further
depleting the worlds workforce. It takes three-four years to
train a nurse however reducing the high attrition rate
within the profession and within the nursing student
population would definitely make a positive difference to
our shortage,” she says.
“The local nursing
student recruitment campaign launched today is positive but
the lack of initiatives related to the retention of
qualified nurses and nursing students is disappointing. A
significant number of current students are withdrawing from
study because of financial stress. They’re required to
undertake 1100 hours of clinical placements while completing
their degree. Being in and out of clinical placements while
managing part-time work is incredibly challenging. We are
also seeing anecdotal evidence of enrolments being
negatively affected by publicity around burnout and safety
in nursing,” she says.
General Practice New Zealand
Chair, Dr Jeff Lowe, says being strategic and planning for
the long term is as important as dealing with the workforce
problems, now.
“A growing number of GP practices
around the country aren’t taking new patients because they
are at capacity,” he says. “We are reaping what we have
sown over the years, which is a lack of investment in our GP
workforce – both financially and planning-wise. The
announcement today is good in so far as it is an
acknowledgement of the crisis however it doesn’t go far
enough.”
Chair of the Federation of Primary Health,
Steve Chadwick, says although health workforce issues
can’t be addressed overnight, the Federation wants
continued emphasis on supporting New Zealanders to enter the
workforce. “This is critically important for the
long-term,” she
says.
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