Underpaid and overworked, nurses from Finley and Tocumwal rallied yesterday morning.
Sick and tired of inadequate nurse to patient ratios, they broke a decade of silence.
‘‘We have a duty of care to our patients, and it is depressing to go home after a 12 hour shift and feel like you haven’t done all that you can for your patients,’’ NSW Nurses and Midwives Association Tocumwal branch secretary Marcia Howes said.
Ms Howes is a registered nurse, and often the only one rostered on at the Tocumwal Multipurpose Service when she’s on shift.
‘‘You can’t expect someone to work run off their feet for 12 hours and for that to not take a toll,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s not safe for a nurse to be solely responsible for up to 16 aged care beds, six acute beds, and the three beds in emergency.
‘‘It’s dangerous because mistakes can happen when staff are put under extreme pressure — and they have happened.’’
There are more than 48,000 members of the NSWNMA, and last week 97 per cent of them voted in favour of statewide action.
‘‘We have a professional responsibility to advocate for safe patient care,’’ another NSWNMA spokesperson said.
‘‘And we are no longer able to keep patients safe.’’
Among the list of the union’s demands — which includes a pay rise of at least 2.5 per cent — none is more important than the introduction of minimum nurse to patient ratios.
Similar ratios have been a staple of hospitals in both Victoria and Queensland since 2015.
Both states require nurses to care for no more than four patients per shift.
Last year researchers found that Queensland’s policy had reduced both death and readmissions by seven per cent.
The research was conducted by the University of Pennsylvania in collaboration with the Queensland University of Technology.
Ms Howes said of all the states in Australia, NSW is the worst-paying with the poorest benefits.
‘‘Nurses are going to Victoria and Queensland, where they’ve got nurse to patient ratios, better pay, and better working conditions,’’ Ms Howes said.
‘‘And why wouldn’t you?’’
Ms Howes, who lives in Victoria but works in NSW, has been an RN for 13 years.
At any time in those 13 years, she could have worked for a Victorian hospital and received not only better pay, but better conditions too.
Instead, she chooses to stay at Tocumwal MPS.
‘‘All of the nurses at Tocumwal and Finley stay because they want to do the right thing for their hospital, and their patients,’’ Ms Howes said.
‘‘But the government is not doing the right thing for us. And that’s why nurses right across the state are leaving.’’
It was only in July that the Tocumwal Multipurpose Service was in crisis, beginning when three nurses either resigned or went on leave.
Six months later, Ms Howes says there is still not enough staff to cover staff absences.
‘‘There is no one to cover sick leave, and that goes for both Tocumwal and Finley,’’ she said.
‘‘We can only take annual leave if they find an agency nurse to cover us.
‘‘All it takes is one person calling in sick and then we have to work 12-hour shifts to cover the shortfall.
‘‘Management relies on us to just keep going, automatically they say, ‘alright time to go on 12-hour shifts’. It’s unsustainable, and it’s not a solution.’’
At least 11 nurses — from Tocumwal and Finley — attended yesterday’s strike action at the Finley Hospital.
From 10am to 10.30am they picketed passing cars and the hospital itself.
The brandished signs reading ‘Stop playing with people’s lives’ and ‘We want ratios for safety’.
‘‘We want to make it known to the state government that we’ve had enough,’’ said Finley NSWNMA representative and nurse Nicole Hargreaves.
Ms Hargreaves said nurses and midwives at the strike action chose not to work for the very reason they first entered the profession — saving lives.
‘‘Patients matter, lives matter, and we don’t want patients or staff to be compromised because of the current conditions,’’ she said.
‘‘We love it in the bush, and we love our community. We get to know our patients, and we want them to go home knowing we’ve given them the best care we can.
‘‘We are fatigued and we have had enough.
‘‘Now is the time to create a better and safer workplace for everyone.
‘‘Now is the time for nurse to patient ratios.’’