On The Record November 2016

ON THE

RECORD NOVEMBER 2016

Good news! Future secure for NMHPV

pages 6 –7

1986 Victorian nurses and midwives strike – 30 years on pages 9–17

www.anmfvic.asn.au

540 Elizabeth Street Melbourne Vic 3000

Know your entitlements Inside this edition

2 3

Know your entitlements Secretary’s report

4

• Private acute and aged care EBA update

• Public sector mental health and Forensicare EBAs finalised

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• Member profile: Q&A with palliative care nurse and writer Steven Amsterdam

In focus

6-7 • Suicide prevention 8 • ‘My Cancer Pal’ app support for patients

• Ratios taskforce established

9-17 • 1986 Victorian nurses’ and

midwives’ strike – 30 years on

18 • Easy steps to PVC recycling

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20

• Hobsons Bay nurses vote for industrial action

• Job Representative training – November 2016 • OHS courses

• ANMF campaigns for voluntary euthanasia law

• Special interest groups

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• Education calendar

ANMF (Vic Branch) 540 Elizabeth St, Melbourne Vic 3000 Phone 9275 9333 Fax 9275 9344 Info Line 9275 9300 (metro)

1800 133 353 (regional) Membership 9275 9313 Library 9275 9391 ANMF Education Centre 9275 9363 Website: anmfvic.asn.au Facebook: facebook.com/RespectOurWork Twitter: @ANMFvicbranch Email: records@anmfvic.asn.au

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Christmas, New Year and Australia Day public holidays Alison O’Gorman, Information Officer With the 2016–17 festive season almost upon us, we again have a scheduled public holiday occurring on a weekend. The effect of this is dependent upon your EBA. Victorian public holidays 2016-17 Christmas Day Sunday 25 December 2016 Boxing Day Monday 26 December 2016 Other day for Christmas Day Tuesday 27 December 2016 New Year’s Day Sunday 1 January 2017 Other day for New Year’s Day Monday 2 January 2017 Australia Day Thursday 26 January 2017 General principles for payment – working on the public holiday Nurses and midwives required to work on the public holiday receive double time for each hour worked, and the weekend penalty if applicable. Casual employees receive double the casual rate for time worked on a public holiday Monday to Friday (125% + 125% = 250%), or on weekends 125% x 2.5 = 312.5%, inclusive of the weekend penalty rate.

Private and aged care employees need to check their current agreements.

General principles for payment – not working on the public holiday Where you (whether full or part time) would normally work the day that the public holiday falls, but are not required to work by your employer, you are entitled to the day off on ordinary pay for that day.

Full-time employees who are rostered off on the public holiday receive a day’s ordinary pay for that day and on a prorata basis for part-time nurses and midwives. For example: Average hours (preceding 6 months) X shift length = base payment X penalty = payment 24 (0.63) X 8 hours = 5.05 hours X time = 5.05 hours If the public holiday falls on a weekend, this payment will only apply to ‘weekend workers’. Under the new EBA this is the same whether you are full or part time.

Part-time nurses and midwives outside the public sector should check current workplace agreements as the entitlements may differ.

Generally if a part-time employee has worked 50 per cent of the day of the week on which the public holiday falls, over the preceding 26 weeks, they would be entitled to their normal ordinary hours for that day.

Will I be paid public holiday penalty rates for working both the actual public holiday and the ‘other’ day?

No, you are not entitled to be paid public holiday penalties for both the actual and ‘other’ day. You will only receive a public holiday penalty for one of these days. For example: Worked on the ‘actual’ day - 25 December 2016

Worked on the ‘other’ day - 27 December 2016

Did not work either

Paid public holiday penalty rates for the actual day, no penalty applies to working the ‘other‘ day or being rostered off on the ‘other’ day.

If a Monday to Friday worker, paid public holiday penalties for the day worked.

If not a Monday to Friday worker, penalties or rostered off benefits apply to the 25 December, not 27 December.

Paid public holiday penalty ‘not worked’ for one public holiday but not both.

* Please note the above is in addition to other penalties received - for example shift penalties and weekend penalties still apply.

Personal leave (sick leave /carer's leave) on a public holiday If you take personal leave on a public holiday the day would be paid at ordinary hours normally worked (100 per cent) and not deducted from personal leave.

Public sector night duty entitlement on public holidays A night duty employee is entitled to be paid public holiday rates for each hour worked on that ‘part of the shift’ that falls on the public holiday, and at the pro rata ‘rostered off benefit’ for that part of the public holiday shift that you are not rostered to work.

Private acute and aged care will need to check their current agreements.

Public mental health nurses' night duty entitlements Full and part time nurses rostered to work on the night shift ending on the public holiday receive the public holiday penalty rates for the entire shift. Employees rostered to work on the night shift commencing on the public holiday do not receive the public holiday rates for that shift. An employee rostered off on the night shift ending on the public holiday receives the applicable rostered off benefit.

This advice is of a general nature. If you require more information please call the members-only ANMF (Vic Branch) information line on 03 9275 9333 or 1800 133 353 (regional toll free).

www.anmfvic.asn.au

Secretary’s report

Your ANMF Lisa Fitzpatrick State Secretary

Let’s take care of ourselves and each other Lisa Fitzpatrick NMHPV funding secure Nursing and midwifery are wonderful, but can be incredibly stressful professions.

The pressure comes from a complex combination of nursing and midwifery professional, legal responsibilities, obligations and our workplace culture.

Research recently published by the Medical Journal of Australia and reported in The Age newspaper shows we have a lot more work to do taking care of ourselves and each other.

Paul Gilbert

Assistant Secretary

Pip Carew

Assistant Secretary

ANMF AGM The annual general meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 13 December 2016 at 5.30pm, Level 7, ANMF House, 540 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC 3000.

All members are invited to attend.

Copies of the ANMF (Vic Branch) annual report 2015-2016, including financial statements, will be available.

Call Lindy Williams on 9275 9321 to register your attendance by 6 December (for catering purposes).

Cover image: The NMHPV team from left to right: office manager Julie Ferrier, case manager Natalie Spencer, chief executive officer Glenn Taylor and case manager Carolyn McDonald

Researchers from Deakin University and the University of Melbourne have found that the suicide rates for male and female and nurses and midwives are higher than other non-health professions.

I encourage all nurses and midwives to familiarise themselves with the services provided by the NMHPV and approach them early for yourself or a colleague.

Story pages 6-7.

Lifeline’s 24-hour crisis line is 13 11 14 NMHPV phone 9414 7551 or nmhp.org.au Remembering the ‘86 strike Thirty years ago this month Victorian nurses walked out of their hospitals and remained on the picket lines for 50 days.

The first walkout was at Western General on 5 November 1986.

These unacceptable statistics highlight why important work already underway is so necessary.

The unprecedented nurses’ action was in response to a new career structure decision, supported by the Cain Government, which demoted nurses with up to 30 years experience to the lowest classification and pay.

Local trials have begun under the Andrews Government’s Victorian suicide prevention framework 2016-25. This framework will provide intensive community-based programs for the most vulnerable people.

In 1986 I was a young Job Rep having not long finished my graduate nursing year at Prince Henry’s. I helped coordinate the Prince Henry’s members meeting that endorsed our walkout.

The new Victorian public sector agreement, which at the time of going to print was going through the ballot process, includes a number of new clauses that will assist in addressing high stress issues of violence and aggression and fatigue.

The following day we started at the oncology unit on the top floor and progressed down through the hospital as we collected more and more nurses until we walked out the front door. It was overwhelming and a day that will stay with me forever.

Perhaps the most important development is the news that the Andrews Government has recognised the critical lifesaving work of the Nursing and Midwifery Health Program Victoria (NMHPV) and will secure its long term funding. The 10 year-old program was launched in 2006 and was funded by the then Nurses Board of Victoria through our state nursing and midwifery registration fees. Funding has been uncertain since the move to national registration in 2010.

During the strike I spent much of my time on the St Kilda Road picket line outside Prince Henry’s and the remainder at RANF headquarters. There were no smart phones, social media or emails so each morning I attended the daily Job Rep update meetings at the RANF (Royal Australian Nursing Federation as the ANMF was called then) office in Alma Road.

Nurses and midwives, who have used the NMHPV for health issues including anxiety, psychological distress, depression and alcohol and substance use, place an important emphasis on its intimate knowledge of the nursing and midwifery professions which cannot be replicated by a generic employee assistance program.

This understanding and knowledge is essential to supporting nurses and midwives getting well and returning to work while navigating their unique regulatory and employment obligations and consequences.

I was also involved in allocating financial assistance to those who needed it most through the hardship fund committee.

Fifty days is a long time not to be paid.

The consequences were serious for many who could not meet mortgage, rent or car payments.

This month we remember the 50-day strike through the eyes of the leaders, the decision makers and the working nurses and midwives who decided it was time to make a stand against a government that thought it could keep treating us like handmaidens.

It forever changed us as individuals, our union and our professions in Victoria.

On the Record is the official publication of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (Victorian Branch). OTR is published monthly.

www.anmfvic.asn.au

November 2016

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News

Private acute and aged care EBA update Cabrini Like most other private sector employers, Cabrini management has offered wages parity with Victorian public sector nurses and midwives, whose wage increases in 2019 will see them reach net parity with their NSW counterparts.

Under the proposed agreement, Cabrini nurses and midwives would reach pay parity with Victorian public sector nurses and midwives in November 2019 as part of the four year agreement.

Epworth Epworth staff have voted to approve an enterprise agreement which will mean wages for nurses and midwives will be slightly higher than those of Victorian public sector nurses and midwives at 1 July 2020.

St John of God St John of God members have voted to approve an enterprise agreement which includes wage parity with the public sector in 2020, with wage increases of between approximately 15.9 and 27.5 per cent depending on classification, over the life of the agreement.

HammondCare At the time of going to print, HammondCare aged care employees were voting on a ballot to take protected industrial action over their enterprise agreement, having voted down an agreement offer that ANMF (Vic Branch) deemed ‘substandard’. The ballot was ending on 27 October.

About 83 per cent of HammondCare staff voted to reject an earlier agreement offer which would have left them with pay that was six to 20 per cent below other Victorian high care facilities such as Blue Cross.

Bupa Care Services Bupa Care Services’ enterprise agreement expired on 31 October and discussions are continuing with members and Bupa management.

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Public sector mental health ANMF members endorse offer

Public sector mental health and Forensicare EBAs finalised After 125 days of protected industrial action, ANMF members endorsed a new public sector mental health EBA that will see wage increases in line with the outcome ANMF achieved for the general public health sector and 125.8 new mental health nurse positions implemented over five years.

The new agreement will also introduce a community workload management system that provides an approximate 60/40 split between hours spent on direct clinical and caseload commitments and organisational tasks/practitioner development time.

ANMF (Vic Branch) congratulates public sector mental health members for their support and patience throughout the negotiations. Our negotiations with the Victorian Government and HACSU over the 2016–20 agreement involved 43 meetings.

Other key elements of the agreement were: • a review of discipline mix in community teams to tackle substitution of nurses • 20 days paid family violence leave per year • employers must establish an action plan to address occupational violence and aggression • each ward or unit must have one equivalent full-time nurse unit manager • qualification allowance to apply to double degrees and Masters entry after 12-months experience and 10 per cent allowance for Masters qualification.

Under the new agreement, the 2016 wage increase will involve the continuing professional development allowance being rolled into wages at the 2015 rate with a three per cent increase applied on top.

Public sector mental health nurses will receive a sign on payment of 1.5% equivalent to the back pay they would have received to the 1 April expiry date of the last agreement.

In 2017 the wage increase will be 3 per cent and in 2018 there will be a 3.25 per cent increase.

In 2019, in line with the general public sector, wages will be increased to meet net parity of New South Wales nurses’ and midwives’ wages.

Depending on classification, wages will increase from between four and 20 per cent to reach net parity with NSW. The highest additional mental health nursing staff achieved in an EBA will be allocated to focus on: • improved mental health nursing staffing in acute units and at Forensicare Thomas Embling Hospital • allocation of a nurse unit manager to each bed based unit (except Austin CCU) • additional clinical educators to enable extension of clinical nurse educator positions to all program areas (for example perinatal psychiatry, child and adolescent, aged persons).

• improved mental health nursing staffing to SECU, mental health aged and mental health mother baby units to enable transparent and consistent nursing rosters across the state in all bed based environments.

www.anmfvic.asn.au

Member profile – Steven Amsterdam Q&A with palliative care nurse and writer Steven Amsterdam Steven Amsterdam is a palliative care nurse. He is also a writer with two novels and a collection of short stories Things We Didn’t See Comin, which won The Age Book of the Year 2009 award and is on the VCE English reading list.

In his latest novel The Easy Way Out, the protagonist, Evan, is a nurse who assists people to die. It’s a topical theme, as a Victorian Parliamentary committee inquiry into end-of-life choices has recommended the Victorian Government legalise assisted dying for those suffering from ‘ a serious and incurable condition who are at the end of life’.

Steven Amsterdam Mr Amsterdam spoke about his novel and his nursing work at the Melbourne Writers’ Festival, on a panel about ‘A Good Death’ with oncologist Dr Ranjana Srivastava.

On the Record conducted this interview with Mr Amsterdam after the festival.

Q: Was your choice of subject directly informed by your work as a palliative care nurse?

A:I wrote the book for a couple of reasons.

I wanted to write something that captured some aspect of nursing from the inside and in palliative care I do community work.

It’s a very intense, close bit of nursing and I love it for that – you get to know patients, and because you see them repeatedly, they get to know you. So there’s a relationship that develops, which is specific to certain kinds of nursing.

It’s a strange job, community palliative nursing, because you go to somebody’s house and they’re dying, and then you go to somebody else’s house and they’re dying and somebody else’s house and they’re dying - and then you go get lunch. And then you go to somebody else’s house...

That wouldn’t be viable without the team, without the relationship with the patient and without a sense of humour and I’ve been thinking about the sense of humour.

It’s not the Three Stooges type, it’s almost a philosophy in nursing. It makes the work manageable. You’re not making fun of the patients, it’s just the absurdity of life. It’s almost a healthy distance that makes the work doable.

And then, every now and then in my role and not that often - you get someone who says ‘Can we just cut to the chase?’

www.anmfvic.asn.au

Politically, I think assisted dying is a right people should have but at the same time, in here (points to his heart) I have two very strong responses when (a patient) says that.

One is, based on our relationship and how much I know you and your family and how much you’re suffering, I think: ‘I would like to help’.

Andrew Denton, when speaking at the ANMF (Vic Branch) Delegates Conference about his podcast series on assisted dying, said that in the countries where assisted dying is legal, very few people choose to take this action.

One of the biggest safeguards is how much people want to live.

At the same time, I think ‘I could not do that five times a day.’ And so really the book came from the split between the things we believe in, we might not necessarily want to do.

That’s one of his messages that I really like — underlining how infrequently it’s used and I think Oregon is a good example, where a doctor prescribes the drugs and patients take them home and take them or don’t take them.

And I think society is kind of struggling with that right now and so I really just set out to interrogate that. I didn’t write the book because I had answers, I wrote the book because I had questions.

Like much of his previous work, Mr Amsterdam set out with a scenario and through an act of imagination, explored the questions the scenario raised.

But to his bemusement, the bureaucratic structure he imagined might surround assisted dying practice was not dissimilar to that proposed by the Victorian Parliamentary inquiry.

It’s not hard to imagine how it could evolve into a role in the hospital and to me the natural place it would come from is palliative care. At the same time, the palliative care and assisted dying movement seem to have almost an antagonistic feeling towards each other, like they’re diametric opposites - whereas in some ways they’re on a continuum.

But again, (I asked the question) ‘Who are these nurses and doctors who are going to do this?’ And the Victorian inquiry (report) has a whole section on conscientious objection.

The evidence shows that most people don’t take the drugs, they just want the option, and I think that’s a very good argument in favour.

Q: Was there any trepidation in choosing to write about a topic that was so close to your work?

A: Yes absolutely.

The whole time I was writing I was concerned that I’d come in and there’d be a note from the boss’s boss’s boss saying ‘Your services are no longer required because you’ve been identified with something we object to’ but one thing that’s been really satisfying with the reviews is that the book has been read in the way I intended it, which doesn’t always happen.

But the three or four main reviews I’ve had so far have gotten that I just want to look at it, without having an angle — really trying to shore up my political certainty with my emotional uncertainty.

The readers can reach their own conclusions.

With all of my books, I’d rather they be a Rorschach test for the reader rather than a piece of dogma from me.

November 2016

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In focus – Suicide prevention

The NMHPV team pictured left to right: chief executive officer Glenn Taylor, case manager Carolyn McDonald , office manager Julie Ferrier, case manager Natalie Spencer

Future of Victoria’s unique nurses’ and midwives’ health program secured Victorian nurses and midwives will continue to have access to a unique and free health program thanks to the Andrews Government.

Victoria's Nursing and Midwifery Health Program (NMHPV) provides a ‘nurses and midwives support service for nurses and midwives’ with a mental health, alcohol or substance abuse issue via telephone, face-to-face and case management services.

Health Minister Jill Hennessy has advised the 10-year-old NMHPV that the government will secure its funding after years of uncertainty.

In a letter to the NMHPV Ms Hennessy said the government would provide interim funding to June 2017 and secure its longterm funding.

Ms Hennessy said the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s (NMBA) decision to award a tender for a national nurses and midwives telephone support service to Turning Point in partnership with the NMHPV was recognition of the independent health program’s strengths but didn't go far enough.

ANMF is disappointed that the NMBA discontinued funding for the comprehensive program and instead opted for a telephone line and website.

NMHPV was established in 2006 to encourage a culture of self and early referral in the best interests of the nurse or midwife and their patients. At the time a punitive approach to sensitive health issues meant nurses and midwives were not free to seek support without risking their registration, their career and their livelihood.

The program was originally funded through Victorian nurses’ and midwives’ annual state registration fees. Funding continued for a number of years under an arrangement secured by the then Victorian Health Minister, Daniel Andrews, to ensure a smooth transition through the introduction of national registration in 2010.

NMHPV chief executive officer Glenn Taylor said the funding news provided Victorian nurses and midwives with certainty around access to this important service and was critical to respond to recent research

revealing both female and male nurses had a higher risk of suicide than other occupations.

‘The risk factors which negatively impact the health of our nursing and midwifery colleagues identified in the research by the University of Melbourne and Deakin University are consistent with our experience at the NMHPV over the past 10 years.

‘The pressure on our colleagues to balance the workplace stress with the home life demands is real and considerable for many.

‘Nurses and midwives are acutely aware of the responsibility they assume in their roles.

This pressure can and does lead to inordinate amounts of stress for some, hence anxiety, depression and psychological distress are real and common,’ Mr Taylor said.

The NMHPV believes that early intervention is the best way to address health problems and encourages nurses and midwives to contact the service to discuss how it can help.

The NMHPV operates Monday to Friday, 8.30am-5pm. Call 9414 7551 or visit www.nmhp.org.au

Government’s plan to reduce suicide rate This year the Victorian Government released its plan to halve the rate of suicide over the next 10 years.

In 2014,646 Victorians lost their lives to suicide, a rate of deaths per 100,000 people of 15.6 for men and five for women.

The highest rate of suicide for men is those aged 85 and over (37.6 per 100,000), followed by men aged 40-44 and 50-54 (29.9 and 29.2 per 100,000 respectively).

The highest rate of suicide among women is in the 35-39 age group (9.2 per 100,000).

Every year in Victoria suicide takes more than twice as many lives as the road toll.

The Victorian suicide prevention framework 2016-25, released in July, included $27 million new investment over four years to support local trials to help communities prevent suicide and outreach services for people who have attempted suicide.

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These initiatives will be additional to established suicide prevention programs and are based around the objectives of building resilience, supporting vulnerable people, caring for the suicidal person, learning what works best and helping local communities prevent suicide.

The framework involves investing in local community approaches such as workforce training, school-based support and mental health literacy programs within six local government areas:

Under the framework, support would also be provided for intensive community based support trials at six health facility locations for people who have attempted suicide:

• Mornington Peninsula/Frankston

• Peninsula Health

• Brimbank/Melton

• Alfred Health

• Whittlesea

• St Vincent's Hospital

• Mildura

• Barwon Health, Geelong

• Latrobe Valley

• Maroondah Hospital

• Ballarat.

• Wangaratta Hospital. www.anmfvic.asn.au

NMHPV case studies

These stories are based on real nurses and midwives. Their names and details have been altered to protected their identity.

Gail is 36 years old. She has been a social drinker since adolescence, maintaining three to four alcohol free days a week.

She has engaged in occasional social (binge) drinking all of her adult life. She has a fractious relationship with her parents, however maintains regular contact. She ended a long-term relationship with her partner six months ago. She has felt lonely, anxious and distracted since the separation.

Her drinking has increased to a daily basis, between one to two bottles of wine a day.

She continued to present to work and did an acceptable job. She resorted to diverting diazepam from work and using it to manage her anxiety which was discovered and reported to Gail’s manager by a colleague.

Wendy is 25 years old. She has been working as a community nurse for 12 months.

Her first several months were uneventful.

About three months ago her manager became concerned due to her increased absenteeism, being easily distracted, diminished attention to detail within the workplace, hypersensitivity to feedback and a strong paranoia at different times.

Her manager expressed these concerns with her. Wendy was defensive and reluctant on approach, denying any concern exists.

She became distant and difficult to engage.

She was placed on sick leave. A notification was made to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and she was referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Health Program Victoria (NMHPV).

At the NMHPV Gail undertook a thorough health assessment, was assisted to develop an individual support plan and assisted to initiate the support strategies contained in the plan.

This case management arrangement included weekly individual meetings with a nurse counsellor for the first six weeks, which progressed to fortnightly, then monthly appointments, where she engaged in supportive counselling to address her underlying addiction issues.

She also attended the fortnightly NMHPV Peer Support Group, a closed and confidential

forum which exposes her to fellow nurses and midwives with similar health challenges.

She was referred to an Addiction Medicine Specialist for tailored specialist support and introduced to a range of community based, self-directed support initiatives.

With the NMHPV assistance Gail navigated the AHPRA investigation process and made a successful return to work with her manager’s support.

Gail remained engaged with the NMHPV for the next 12 months where she was provided ongoing maintenance support.

Gail has remained abstinent and enjoys good health, she has maintained her employment and is soon to complete her AHPRA/NMBA imposed conditions related to her practice.

Wendy’s manager contacted the NMHPV for advice. It was suggested she refer Wendy to the NMHPV for an assessment.

to help her navigate the challenges of her work, in the context of going through her specialist domestic violence support work.

Wendy engaged with the NMHPV and undertook a thorough health assessment.

It was here Wendy disclosed she had been in an emotionally abusive relationship with her partner of four years. She was provided the necessary support at assessment and assured of her safety in engaging the NMHPV. It was here she accepted an offer for a formal referral to a specialist domestic violence support service. This strategy was included in Wendy’s individual support plan.

The NMHPV also assisted Wendy to build the confidence to engage in healthy activities linked with her previous interests and to connect with her local community.

The plan also included individual counselling support with the NMHPV

Wendy managed to remain at work throughout, via a tailored support program negotiated between her manager and the NMHPV, and has managed to restore lapsed friendships and relationships.

She is slowly regaining her confidence and self-esteem and wishes to keep in touch with the NMHPV for periodic support.

Nurses and midwives at higher suicide risk, research finds Research has found that female health professionals, particularly nurses and midwives, are at greater risk of suicide than women in other professions.

Deakin University researcher Dr Allison Milner and other researchers from Deakin and the University of Melbourne found that of 9828 suicides by employed Australian adults from 2001–2012, 3.8 per cent of all suicides were by health professionals.

nursing and midwifery, who had a higher rate of suicide. Male nurses and midwives had a suicide rate of 22.7 per 100,000 compared with the men in non-health care occupations with a rate of 14.9 per 100,000.

the double pressure of censure from their workplace and the regulatory body AHPRA. Ms Fitzpatrick also welcomed the Department of Health and Human Services’ initiatives to prevent and reduce bullying in the health sector.

The authors of the research speculated that work-family conflicts, long working hours, high job demands, the fear of making mistakes at work, and exposure to trauma could all affect the suicide rate of health professionals. The research was published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

In April this year, the Health Minister Jill Hennessy announced that a ‘flying squad’ of independent anti-bullying specialists would be deployed in Victoria’s hospitals which have a poor workplace culture and elevated rates of bullying and harassment.

For female medical practitioners the suicide rate was 6.4 per cent per 100,000 and for nurses and midwives it was 8.2 per 100,000.

This compares with 2.8 per 100,000 for women in other occupations.

ANMF (Vic Branch) Secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said that Victorian nurses and midwives who were struggling with mental health issues could access individualised support from the Nursing and Midwifery Health Program Victoria.

The suicide rate for male health professionals was similar to that for men in non-health occupations, except for men working in

She said nurses and midwives who were struggling with mental health issues that affected their work could experience

www.anmfvic.asn.au

The government would also deliver education and support health service boards, leaders and the workforce to prevent bullying and harassment as an occupational health and safety risk. Ms Fitzpatrick also welcomed the Victorian Government’s Suicide Prevention Framework 2016–2025, released in July, which aims to halve the suicide rate over 10 years.

Need help? Phone NMHPV: (03) 9415 7551 Lifeline: 13 11 14 November 2016

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‘My Cancer Pal’ app support for patients Two nurses who are ANMF members have developed an app to support cancer patients as they undergo treatment.

An Australian first, the app ‘My Cancer Pal’ provides resources and information to cancer patients, enabling them to keep track of their treatment, symptoms and side effects, as well as the logistics of appointments, medications and medical contacts.

The app provides: • a contacts list • an appointments calendar so patients can set reminders for appointments, tests and procedures such as blood tests or chemotherapy treatment.

• medications list – to help patients keep an up-to-date list of their medications, when to take them and why they are required • pain tracker – this enables patients to keep a record of their pain levels so this information can be used by professionals in managing pain

‘My Cancer Pal’ also contains information about treatment side effects for chemotherapy and radiotherapy, anxiety and depression, nutritional advice and palliative care.

One of the nurses behind ‘My Cancer Pal’, lung cancer nurse consultant Sara McLaughlin-Barrett, said that in developing the app, she and fellow nurse Sam Aston recognised how important it was for patients to be able to independently take control of their day-to-day symptoms and treatment side effects.

The app has been peer-reviewed by a team from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Ms Laughlin-Barrett said.

‘My Cancer Pal’ is available to purchase for iPhone, iPad and Android users.

Download 'My Cancer Pal' from the iTunes store: https://goo.gl/kYf5XW

• carer's weekly update – this tool enables the patient to nominate their carer within their contacts list.

The elected carer can be sent an email summary of the patient’s pain levels, current medications and upcoming appointments.

Download 'My Cancer Pal' from the Google Play store: https://goo.gl/6mzHU7

My Cancer Pal developer Sara McLaughlin-Barrett

Ratios taskforce established The Victorian Government has appointed a taskforce to oversee nurse/midwife to patient ratio improvements.

The taskforce will be chaired by the deputy president of the New South Wales Mental Health Review Tribunal and former NSW Chief Magistrate Patricia Staunton.

Other members are former Victorian Health Minister Rob Knowles and former ANMF Victorian Branch Secretary Belinda Philp (formerly Belinda Morieson).

Nurse and midwife members will have an opportunity to have their say on how ratios can be improved over time, via the ANMF, and the taskforce will then make recommendations to the Victorian Government.

It is anticipated that submissions for ratio improvements will be called for by the taskforce in the near future and that the submissions from relevant stakeholders will be due in early 2017.

Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy 8

November 2016

The taskforce will consider all submissions and will subsequently make recommendations to the

Health Minister in mid-2017, with the Minister formally considering the Taskforce recommendations after receiving the report and recommendations.

Since the Safe Patient Care Act was passed and nurse/midwife: patient ratios were enshrined in legislation, negotiations over ratios and their application is no longer part of the enterprise agreement process.

The ANMF (Vic Branch) is currently in the process of researching areas for nurse/midwife: patient ratios improvements and introduction to submit to the taskforce.

Announcing the taskforce, Health Minister Jill Hennessy said it would provide an independent voice to the government and an objective appraisal of how ratios could be improved and introduced over time.

www.anmfvic.asn.au

On 30 October 1986, members of the Victorian Branch of the Royal Australian Nursing Federation (now the ANMF) gathered at the Melbourne Sports & Entertainment Centre and voted to go on strike the following day.

A new career structure that resulted in hundreds of nurses being demoted had incensed nurses and midwives who were already over-worked and under-paid.

‘The time has come to do something about that mess and the time is now,’ then Secretary Irene Bolger told the 5000-strong gathering.

Nobody predicted the strike would last for 50 days. Nobody foreshadowed how resolute the nurses and midwives of Victoria would be.

For 50 days, members of the Victorian nurses’ union around the state went without pay, manned 24-hour picket lines and stood firm in the face of censure from the Cain Government, the Industrial Relations Commission, and – for some– their own families and communities.

On 5 November at Western General Hospital, RANF members began the first of a wave of statewide hospital walk-outs, leaving a skeleton staff to care for patients.

The strike was a campaign to improve wages and workloads, and to achieve a career structure that acknowledged the accumulation of skills and experience.

But at a deeper level it was about respect for the nursing and midwifery professions, and quality of patient care.

The strike sent a powerful message that still reverberates: the caring professions’ union members were many, they were organised and they would not be cowed.

On the 30th anniversary of the historic Victorian nurses and midwives strike – the longest strike in Australian nursing history – we interviewed some of the nurses and union officials and the Secretary of RANF (Vic Branch), now the ANMF, Irene Bolger, who took part. A digital exhibition about the strike, with video interviews, will be launched on 5 November at www.anmfvic.asn.au/86strike www.anmfvic.asn.au/86strike

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Anatomy of the strike – a timeline 1984

1985

A ‘no-strike’ clause is voted to be removed from the Royal Australian Nursing Federation’s constitution under the leadership of Barbara Carson Victorian members of RANF, led by then Branch Secretary, the late Barbara Carson, undertake their first statewide industrial action over non-nursing duties, wages and workloads. Nurses work out of uniform, adhere to admission and discharge policies and refuse to use agency staff.

The Cain Government offers nurses a pay rise but the deal is rejected as not good enough.

11 October

Nurses and midwives meet at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl and vote to strike, leaving skeleton staff in the wards. The nurses go out for five days, returning to work when the government promises to keep negotiating over pay and workloads and the addition of ancillary staff to undertake the non-nursing duties.

1986 May

Following Barbara Carson’s retirement, Irene Bolger, 20 years a nurse, RANF organiser and former Job Rep from the Alfred Hospital, is elected Victorian Branch Secretary of the RANF.

20 June

Industrial Relations Commission hands down its decision on a new nurses’ award, including a new career structure.

The government increases overall funding for nurses but new categories of Grade 1 and Grade 2 under the award lead to mass demotions of nurses, qualification allowances are slashed, and student and junior nurses get no pay increase.

14 August

By the end of 1985, many nurses have left the profession.

At Melbourne Town Hall, approximately 3000 nurses attend the first stop-work meeting following the handing down of the award. Members resolve to take industrial action, refusing to wear uniforms and banning elective admissions.

26 August

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RANF issues a media release in which Irene Bolger admonished the IRC:

‘Ms Bolger said she was simply astonished as to how the Commission could be critical of RANF’s actions in an environment where the Commission itself has awarded no increase for students and first year nurses, where the Commission itself has reduced qualifications allowances from $54.80 per week to $19 and where employers have reduced many nurses’ pay by up to $30 per week.’

September

Up to a quarter of hospital beds have been closed.

www.anmfvic.asn.au/86strike

30 October

10 November

7 December

Stop-work meeting held at Sports & Entertainment Centre, Swan Street.

Members vote to commence strike action from 31 October, with wards to be staffed by a skeleton staff of one registered nurse and one enrolled nurse or student nurse per ward, with minimal safe staffing in intensive care, critical care, theatre, renal units, neurology and plastics.

Outpatients, pathology and X-ray to close.

Hundreds more nurses and midwives walk off the job at eleven hospitals, including the Royal Melbourne and Prince Henry’s. Twenty-one hospitals are now on strike, with skeleton staff in critical care wards.

Nurses at hospitals including the Royal Women’s, Prince Henry’s, PANCH and William Angliss walk out of previously exempt critical care areas, e.g. Emergency Departments. Labour wards are shut at the Royal Women’s and Queen Victoria Medical Centre.

Health Minister David White threatens to replace registered nurses with state enrolled nurses (SENs). The RANF and the ACTU collaborate on a package to put to the government.

16 December

The IRC says if the nurses remain on strike, it will arbitrate the dispute without the RANF’s involvement. Nurses vote to remain on strike.

6000 nurses vote to return to work if the government makes concessions. The government makes a detailed monetary offer.

10-16 November

19 December

About 4000 members gather at the Sports & Entertainment Centre to consider the government’s $30 million package. At the meeting, Ms Bolger advises ‘a strategic withdrawal’ with an option to go back on strike if the government reneges on its promises. Members vote to return to work.

20 December

Victorian nurses and midwives end their longest-ever strike and return to work.

RANF establishes 24-hour picket lines and issues guidelines about which goods can be allowed in and what will be excluded (non-essential food and linen).

31 October As nurses go on strike, Premier John Cain tells media that standing down or dismissing nurses are options open to employers if patient care is compromised.

Ms Bolger responds that if Health Minister David White sacks nurses ‘the situation will escalate and nurses will not tolerate it’.

5 November Western General Hospital nurses, having voted in a secret ballot, stage a total walk-out, led by Job Rep/nurse supervisor Isabell Collins, and supported by the RANF.

6 November The IRC hands down a return-towork order.

Premier John Cain, in a televised announcement, tries to go around the union by directly appealing to nurses to return to work and have their concerns arbitrated by the Industrial Relations Commission.

‘I’m now appealing for nurses to think again about their action.

I urge nurses to meet their obligations and put patients first.

Stay at work and have the disputed claims sorted out through arbitration – that is the proper and long-accepted process for resolving industrial disputes. Now it is time for nurses to give a little.’

www.anmfvic.asn.au/86strike

The nurses march to the City Square. The Industrial Relations Commission urges nurses to go back to work so their case can be heard in arbitration and warns of legal consequences if patients suffer during the strike.

11 November

A further 13 hospitals including the Alfred and Dandenong Hospitals, and regional hospitals like Geelong, Kyneton and Gippsland Base Hospital stage walk-outs.

Nurses from 32 Victorian hospitals and the Red Cross Blood Bank are now on strike.

22 November The IRC backs down from its threat to arbitrate the dispute without the RANF and negotiations between the parties begin.

1987 January

The Industrial Relations Commission issues a new award, with a new career structure and pay increases.

Sources: • Colson, Ilsa, More than just the money: 100 years of the Victorian Nurses Union, Prowling Tiger Press, 2001 • ‘A blueprint for union organising’, Cregan, C. and Tierney, J. www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/anfv/strike-4.html • Ross, L. Dedication doesn’t pay the rent – the 1986 Victorian Nurses Strike, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History • ABC TV News, 5 November, 6 November, 7 November, 10 November, 19 December, 20 December 1986 • ABC 7.30 Report, 28 November 1986

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The context for the strike Several factors paved the way for the nurses’ decision to take strike action.

The first was the Royal Australian Nursing Federation’s vote in 1984 to remove the no-strike clause from its rules.

In that year, the Victorian Government’s cuts to its health budget were ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’ in RANF’s words, fomenting a campaign of industrial action, under then Branch Secretary, the late Barbara Carson, in which members banned non-nursing duties.

Working out of uniform, and bans on use of agency staff followed.

But despite the government’s offer to recruit 700 new non-nursing staff within a year, in September of 1985 nurses and midwives were still working for low wages, burdened by non-nursing duties and high patient loads, and many of nurses and midwives had left the profession.

On 17 October 1985, Victorian nurses and midwives used their powerful new industrial tool for the first time – they walked off the job, staying out for five days.

John Kotsifas witnessed the unfurling of nurses’ industrial consciousness as an industrial officer at RANF from 1982. He believes that it was the Cain Government’s failure to honour undertakings made in the early ‘80s around nursing workloads and career structures that led to the 1986 strike. In May 1986 RANF organiser and former Alfred Hospital Job Rep, Irene Bolger, assumed the mantle of Branch Secretary.

Then the Industrial Relations Commission handed down its incendiary award decision in June of 1986. The implementation of the award saw hundreds of nurses downgraded into lower classifications – with even lower pay – and the qualifications allowance abolished.

Nurses – already at breaking point – were enraged. With a shortage of 1500 nurses and 1000 hospital beds closed as a result, nurses felt the future of the entire health system was at stake. ‘Our phones just erupted,’ said Irene Bolger.

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Stop-work meetings followed, and industrial action, including bans on elective admissions. Then on October 30, nurses voted to strike, leaving a skeleton staff in the wards. Their anger was palpable as they marched to the offices of Health Minister David White, chanting ‘Sack White! Sack White!’

Isabell Collins, who was a nursing supervisor and Job Rep at Western General Hospital, said her nursing colleagues returned from one of the meetings ‘fit to be tied’ at what they perceived as a lack of progress in the dispute.

‘I said to the nurses ‘Well if you want to look at a total walk-out then we do it by secret ballot.

Nobody is pressured, people make their own decision about it. If people are conscientious objectors then we’ve got to respect that.

And I can remember the day that we had it and we organised it so that everybody got a vote - people on night duty, people on evening and on morning shift. I remember the director of nursing and I were counting the votes and she said “Oh my god Isabell, they’re going to walk” and I said “I’ve been telling you that for months”.

Hannah Sellers

There was no such thing as nurse: patient ratios of course and so the decision about how many patients you looked after in any given shift was usually up to the nurse in charge and depending on the acuity of the patients it could be up to 8 or 10 patients per shift…To say it was stressful to look after that number of patients I’d think would be a gross understatement.

Kate Welsman

I just remember it being heavy and always going home with the sense of I hadn’t done enough and I was never going to get everything done for my patients that I wanted and I never thought that there was any real respect.

Pauline Cox

The majority of nursing staff were female and I guess in hindsight you can look back and think the perception of nursing was… women look after everybody, women nurture, women don’t make a fuss and suck it all up and be grateful that you’re being paid anything for it, let alone demand something more for it, some recognition.’

Isabell Collins

Everything we needed we had to fight for and you would see other unions like HEF go into management and say ‘We want this and if we don’t get this we’re going to walk out at four o’clock’ and ‘boom!’ –they got it. Myself and many other nurses, you would spend weeks doing your submission and demonstrating facts and things like that and they’d just say no because you weren’t going to do anything about it.

A good example was they were still using the 1:10/1:15 nurse: patient ratio which had been inserted into the award in something like 1936 before penicillin had been discovered, before plasma infusions took place, and they still weren’t even complying with that.

www.anmfvic.asn.au/86strike

The walk-outs The decision to walk out of hospitals was huge for a profession which prides itself on putting patient care first.

Until 1984, the RANF had a no-strike clause in its constitution and had only used their new power to strike once, for five days in October 1985.

The action reflected the level of nurses’ anger at the Victorian Government and their collective despair at the state of the profession.

On 5 November nursing supervisor and Job Rep Isabell Collins, together with Irene Bolger led the first of the walk-outs, from the Western General Hospital, emerging to a waiting media.

Ms Collins broke down in tears as she greeted nurses outside.

Forty -five of the hospital’s 500 nurses remained to care for patients in critical care wards.

‘The nurses in this hospital have done a very brave thing today,’ Ms Bolger told assembled nurses and media. ‘This is something that has to be done to win this…because if we don’t win this, nursing will be destroyed in this state.’

Premier John Cain threatened to invoke the Essential Services Act and the following day, took the extraordinary step of addressing nurses on television, appealing to them to ‘give a little’ and return to work and the negotiating table.

Nurses were further infuriated: on 10 November, nurses at Royal Melbourne, Prince Henry’s and nine other hospitals walked off the job.

On 17 November 1986 – day 18 of the strike - Fairfield Hospital became the 37th hospital to walk out. The decision to stagger the walk-outs was a tactical one by the RANF, and emotional scenes of nurses walking out of hospitals in metropolitan Melbourne, and regional and rural Victoria, were reported by the media for weeks, providing powerful images in the public relations war with the government.

But not all nurses walked out, or stayed out. Some disagreed with the action and remained on the wards, while others returned to work as the strike progressed and the impact of not being paid began to take its toll.

Isabell Collins Lisa Fitzpatrick Catie Bortolot

We knew we were pioneers in what was going to happen in nursing in the state of Victoria but at the same time it was quite frightening and scary because you know, you didn’t want to be tainted with being a trouble-maker.

www.anmfvic.asn.au/86strike

I think I was really overwhelmed.

I was a young registered nurse, I’d never anticipated something like that myself and then just to see the great camaraderie from my colleagues at Prince Henry’s and then when we walked out of Prince Henry’s and down those steps, to see all those other nurses and midwives who were there to cheer us on and support us was quite extraordinary and certainly something that will forever stay with me.

We started off down in Children’s Ward which was the furthest from everywhere and we just collected people and you’d get to a ward and this is the thing that I think is the beauty of nursing – you’d get there and nurses would be in tears and say ‘I haven’t sponged Mr Smith yet’ and I’d say ‘You go sponge Mr Smith and we’ll wait for you. We’re not going until you’re ready.’ And so there were all these nurses scurrying around trying to do everything they could for their patients before they went and that made me so proud. Often when people are going out on strike they don’t care about the work that hasn’t been done but these men and women cared about their patients. None of them wanted to do it, people were in tears, and they were doing it because they’d been pushed to a limit.

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Denise Kohlman

Picket lines and powwows

With nurses out on strike around Victoria and 24-hour picket lines established, communication between RANF and members was paramount to keep members informed and motivated.

There were daily councils of war at the RANF office, well-attended by Job Reps, with bulletins produced and disseminated to picket lines and nurses’ homes. Regular mass meetings attracted thousands of nurses.

out on strike and unfortunately people got into the trenches rather than have an approach which was “Let’s sit down and work out what it would take in order to resolve the nurses’ issues”. '

Other unions provided support to the nurses and midwives on the picket lines – donating items like toilets and telephone lines; the Meatworkers’ Union donated meat for picket line barbeques.

‘The ultimate decision was the nurses’ decision,’ said John Kotsifas, RANF industrial officer at the time.

The RANF collected money for a strike fund, to pay nurses’ emergency expenses as they began to struggle financially without pay.

The picket lines kept the strike visible to the community and, by limiting the delivery of supplies like non-essential foods and linen, placed further pressure on the government to agree to the RANF’s list of 19 issues. These included fixing the career structure, increasing pay for junior nurses and increasing the qualifications allowance.

Many who took part in the strike, including Irene Bolger and current Victorian Branch Secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick, acknowledged the resoluteness of regional and country nurses, who did not have the constant support that city nurses provided to each other at mass rallies and hospital walk-outs.

The Industrial Relations Commission refused to arbitrate while the nurses remained on strike, Health Minister David White refused to negotiate outside of the IRC, while the nurses refused to return to work until the government negotiated their claims.

The dispute was deadlocked.

Ms Fitzpatrick reflected: ‘Because it was so new, it was something that hadn’t been done before, I don’t think the government believed we would stay

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‘It was never something imposed by the executive on its members and it was the support of the nurses on the ground that sustained the industrial action.’

The government’s next move was to bring in nurses from England and Ireland to replace the striking nurses on the wards.

On 30 November, at the Royal Melbourne Hospital picket line, the dispute turned ugly when nurses were dragged along the ground by police called in to allow trucks carrying fresh linen to go through.

On 8 December, nurses had been on strike for 39 days. They were exhausted - but they had to win.

They voted to escalate the dispute and walked out of critical care wards.

As a Job Rep for Prince Henry’s Hospital, Ms Fitzpatrick was one of many who attended the daily ‘council of war’ meetings held at RANF’s headquarters.

‘It was democracy alive and well which was fantastic to see and it’s all in the time before mobile phones, of course, and Skype. The room that we held that meeting in was always crowded, there was always really fantastic attendance.

It was great to hear about what other picket lines and other hospitals were doing and how they were going so it was a really wonderful opportunity to support and it was a great source of information.’

Frankston was just a very small hospital at that time and it was a community hospital – the population of Frankston wasn’t huge. So on the TV you could see what was happening up in the city when the news would come on but we had our own problems. We had our own community that we had to bring on board, so it was good to see that the bigger places were doing exactly what we were doing – you got a sense of sister and brotherhood out of that.

Catie Bortolot

There were that many rallies that we went to and that many meetings.

You didn’t know what was going to happen. Every day or every second day, there was a change. The rallies were massive. There’s footage of that one where we’re all marching in Bourke Street and it’s a sea of white and I remember placards (saying) ‘Your White Angels’ and we had our Baxter veils on and some of the nurses were really creative (with placards saying) ‘David made me do it’, you know, walk off the job.

John Kotsifas

The atmosphere at the meetings was electric. It was something I had not seen before…and we had broadbased support from a cross-section of society at the time, people from all walks of life supporting the nurses and contributing to the strike fund which was established to assist nurses in those difficult times.

Irene Bolger

They came up with lots of funny things.

They were so determined, they put themselves out so massively. They were prepared to march up the middle of Melbourne at one point when we sat outside the Health Minister’s offices and they were prepared to stand up with signs all over the place… you couldn’t miss them! I felt it was a great privilege and I was so happy, having been a nurse and seen nurses be exploited over the years that nurses were prepared to finally stand up and do something about it. They had the opportunity and they took it.

www.anmfvic.asn.au/86strike

Nurses pay the price For the thousands of nurses and midwives who took part in the 1986 strike, going without pay for 50 days was a tangible hardship – but not the only hardship – of the campaign.

For the nurses interviewed for this commemoration, going without wages was a sacrifice they felt they had to make: losing the campaign meant returning to an untenable situation. There was also a huge emotional toll for nurses and midwives, not only from walking out on patients. The strike affected relationships between nurses who walked out and those who remained at work, and for some, relationships with hospital management.

ANMF (Vic Branch) Secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick was one of a group administering the RANF strike fund.

‘There were really extraordinary stories which I think demonstrated the commitment of nurses and midwives to the strike and the dire financial straits they were in. I’ll never forget how one nurse wrote and said… she’d explained to her young children that Santa Claus was really tight this year. She didn’t have any money and was asking for money from the strike fund.’

Isabell Collins

We had a few go back and a handful who used the situation to develop their career path, who went back and said ‘It’s disgusting, they’re so unprofessional’ – but they were a handful. The rest – there were people who were losing their houses because they couldn’t pay their mortgages or their cars.

There were people who couldn’t feed their kids. Very distressing for them. And you’d say to them ‘Look if you want to go back to work, nobody’s going to criticise you.’

Nup. Determined to stay.

We even had [registered and enrolled nurses] those who were not going to benefit from this career structure at all who came out on strike and stayed out with us and when you told them ‘There’s no benefit for you’ (said) ‘Nup, we want to be with you.’

Bronwyn Pyke

It was alright to start with initially.

The picket line was jovial and friendly and people were honking their horns and the police were bringing us KFC and other things and that was alright. But the first week when I didn’t get paid I thought ‘This is real’ and as it dragged on and I didn’t get paid and I didn’t get paid, I just didn’t have enough money anymore to lead a normal life.’

Eventually, Ms Pyke had to give up her rented apartment and move back in with her parents, and picked cherries at her father’s friend’s orchard so she could pay for food, board and petrol.

Denise Kohlman

I used to cry pretty readily because it was pretty hard. There was no income coming in, just my husband’s income and we had a mortgage and three kids and I’d just come back from maternity leave. We relied on family to give us a bit of money and invite us around for dinner or something.

The community response The key players in the nurses’ strike agree that nobody thought the 1986 strike would last 50 days.

It was unprecedented for Victorian nurses and midwives to be walking out of hospitals and camping out on picket lines, holding firm against threats from the Premier and Health Minister of manslaughter charges, sackings and using the Essential Services Act to break the strike.

The industrial action, particularly in the early days of the walkouts, attracted intensive media coverage, with the public relations battle between the RANF and the government a major part of the campaign.

www.anmfvic.asn.au/86strike

How did the public respond to such a visible and lengthy campaign?

Lisa Fitzpatrick

I think the community had an appreciation of how tough things were and also what our issues were.

That’s always, I think, very critical…

Many in the community are either married to a nurse, their mum’s a nurse, their sister’s a nurse, so we did have a great network to explain our issues and why we were doing what we were doing and I think to give Irene (Bolger) her credit, I think Irene was a really positive person speaking on behalf of the nurses and making sure the community, also through those media channels, understood what our issues were.

Denise Kohlman

It turned over a period of time.

I think they saw that we meant what we meant but it took a few weeks for that to happen. Those first two or three weeks was pretty much ‘Get back to work you bitch’.

You know, that’s the kind of abuse we used to get particularly from the people in the cars.

You’d just get yelled at all the time: ‘Get back in the hospitals’, ‘What are you doing standing out there?’, ‘People are gonna die because you’re out here.’

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Kate Welsman

The community response

There was one stage on Victoria Parade when we used to hold up little bits of cardboard saying ‘Toot if you support nurses’ and we had to stop doing that because it was keeping patients awake in the hospital. Everybody was banging on their horn; the trams were dinging every time they went through. It was quite extraordinary. I never got any lip at the supermarket. I thought I would. I thought there would be an almighty backlash. I think the stick that we got and the abuse that we got, we got from our own.

The aftermath Nurses returned to work on 20 December 1986 but not before they had upped the ante even further by withdrawing skeleton staff and nurses from critical care wards.

Health Minister David White initially responded by threatening to replace registered nurses with state enrolled nurses but retreated. The Cain Government agreed to a joint RANF/ ACTU package which would provide wage rises, return qualifications allowances and establish a new career structure.

John Kotsifas said there were mixed feelings both within RANF and among members about accepting the final proposal and many cases about the career structure were brought before the Industrial Relations Commission in subsequent years. In the final meeting, Ms Bolger framed the option to return to work as ‘a strategic withdrawal’, holding out the possibility of further strikes if the government did not honour its agreement.

For nurses returning to work, the strike continued to reverberate. Nurses were ‘collapsing emotionally’ with something akin to post-traumatic stress disorder, Isabell Collins said, and some experienced management retribution.

But there was also great pride in what the RANF members had achieved and friendships forged on the picket lines that endure today.

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Pauline Cox

There was a huge contingent of nurses who were out on what was basically the main street of Shepparton. The hospital runs along the Midland Highway… and we were out in force with our placards, the ‘Toot if you support us’ scenario…The local news channels would be filming us. Particularly if there was some new development all the cameras would be back there, so we’d rally in force…I remember the patients being incredibly supportive: ‘You go, girls. I’ve never seen anyone work as hard as you girls do.’ That spurred us on because everything that was in the media and all the propaganda coming out was ‘If you strike, you’re going to put patients at risk. People are going to die because you’re not there’, so it was pretty confronting but as it came to its head, we were fairly committed and very supported I think.

Kate Welsman

On that day it was just this incredible sense of release and pride…There were people stopping us in the streets in our strike t-shirts going ‘Good on yas, that was fantastic. I’m glad you’re going back to work though because Mum goes into hospital next week’.

And it was this whole sense of ‘OK, we’ve won, let’s celebrate, we’ll get up with a hangover tomorrow.

Let’s make sure the strike fund is distributed so that everybody gets their mortgages paid off, the kids have got food in their mouths and let’s go back to work and care for these people because this is what we really want to do.’

Hannah Sellers

The atmosphere at the meeting where we decided to go back to work was a bit deflating. However I believe, and I said so at the time, that it was the right decision.

People were worn out. Because of the drawn out nature of the strike nurses had started to return to work… because of the financial straits that nurses were in, they simply couldn’t stay out for any longer and so there was a bit of animosity between those who did stay out for the full 50 days and those who did return (to work) and it took a while for those tensions to reduce and in some cases they never did.

Denise Kohlman

We started to have the classifications come in.

I became an associate nurse unit manager in ‘89 and that wouldn’t have been allowed to me under the old conditions.

I can’t remember the complete changeover because it’s too long ago but certainly the increased income was very much welcome. I finally started to feel that I was kind of getting paid what I was worth but what I felt was it gave an avenue for the newer nurses to think that they weren’t just going to be handmaidens all the time, or cleaners, or a mixture of all kinds of other jobs thrown into one. We actually had the ability to just nurse patients.

www.anmfvic.asn.au/86strike

Acknowledgements On behalf of all ANMF members, ANMF (Vic Branch) thanks every nurse and midwife who took part in the 1986 strike, and those who provided their recollections and archival materials for the 30th anniversary commemoration, both print and online.

Thank you to those members whose recollections of the strike have helped inform this commemoration: Andrea Martyn, Amanda Charles, Annie Rutter, Carol Holt, Catherine Alevaki, Denise Davis, Elizabeth Pietrzak, Elizabeth Wilson, Fiona Martin, Gael Schmid, Greg Trent, Gretta Hope, Helen Jones, Jackie Shaw, Jane Eddy, Jenny Buxton, Julie-Anne Stevens, Karen Bampfield, Karen Burchell, Kay Bronca, Kerry O’Meara, Kym Fitzpatrick, Marie Jones, Marita Long, Olga Learoyd, Pam Stilling, Sally Forsyth, Samantha Broughton, Sue Crowden, Sue Watt, Teresa Lodge, Wilma Hills.

Thank you to those who provided archival materials: Chris Brown and Serena Everill, directors, Running out of Patience.

ABC Archives. National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.

ANMF (Victorian Branch) Library.

The interviewees Bronwyn Pyke former registered nurse, Bendigo Base Hospital

Catie Bortolot former registered nurse, Royal Children’s Hospital

Denise Kohlman former registered nurse (now ANUM), Frankston Hospital

Hannah Sellers former registered nurse and Job Rep, Prince Henry’s Hospital

Irene Bolger former Secretary Royal Australian Nursing Federation – now ANMF (Victorian Branch)

Isabell Collins John Kotsifas

The social and industrial consciousness that was awoken in the nursing profession, in a very short period of time between ‘85 and ’86, was just stunning to watch. I don’t think we’ve ever seen in Victoria’s industrial history, industrial action taken like that by any predominantly male occupational group – but there you were with the most conservative of professions, when you think about the public’s perception of nurses – there you were in ‘86 with thousands upon thousands of nurses marching down the street, walking off the job and taking the most extreme industrial action one would have perceived possible. It was amazing to watch and it transformed the public’s view about nurses, it transformed nurses’ view about themselves and it was really important in establishing a clear perception and a clear role for nurses within the broader health system.

Pauline Cox

(For all) the pain and distress that it caused, I’m really glad that we did it. I think it changed the face of nursing, certainly in Victoria, in terms of the professional recognition for what we do and making a stand and saying we were important. It was valuable, it was necessary.

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former nursing supervisor and Job Rep, Western General Hospital

John Kotsifas former industrial officer, RANF

Kate Welsman registered nurse (now Job Rep), St Vincent’s Hospital

Lisa Fitzpatrick current ANMF (Victorian Branch) Secretary, former registered nurse and Job Rep, Prince Henry’s Hospital

Meinir Griffiths former Charge Nurse (now nurse unit manager) and Job Rep, Royal Melbourne Hospital

Pauline Cox was a first year registered nurse at Shepparton Base Hospital

Thank you to the video producer James Bellew, Bee TV

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Easy steps to PVC recycling Libby Muir, CPD & Enviromental Health Officer

Did you know that when PVC breaks down it releases harmful chemicals that can contaminate soil and groundwater and when incinerated it releases dangerous dioxins into the atmosphere?

It’s estimated that Australia uses 2,500 tonnes of PVC in medical products each year and an estimated 50 million IV bags go to landfill.

PVC recycling offers a solution and the PVC Recycling in Hospitals Program, which originated in Melbourne, provides health professionals and hospitals support and resources. The program estimates that a 300-bed hospital can recycle 2.5 tonnes of PVC every year. Every tonne of PVC recycled potentially replaces the manufacture of about one tonne of new PVC, reducing waste and saving precious resources.

There are 41 Victorian hospitals in the program – University Hospital Geelong is one. The hospital has recently completed a pilot trial which included the coronary care unit, theatre and RAPU. As part of the program, the health service has PVC products, including IV bags, oxygen tubing and facemasks, collected for free, reducing its landfill and the cost of waste management.

Running a pilot allowed clinical and support staff to work through some logistical issues.

For instance they discovered they needed bin lids with good signage to stop contamination, and that one size bin doesn’t fit everywhere, so they need a variety of bins.

Another benefit of the pilot was the increase in conversation about other recycling options.

Throughout the pilot, and as the program expands, the most important thing for staff to remember is ‘If in doubt, throw it out’, as contamination of the PVC stream can lead to whole batches of PVC being wasted.

Other hospitals involved in PVC recycling in Victoria include: • St John of God Geelong • Geelong University Hospital/Barwon Health • Monash Health Clayton • Cabrini Health • Broadmeadows Renal Unit • Hastings Dialysis • Bairnsdale Hospital • Western Health • Western Private • Eastern Health • Heidelberg Repat • Royal Women's Hospital (pilot) If your hospital is involved in the program but is not on this list, let me know.

I can be contacted at lmuir@anmfvic.asn.au or 9275 9333.

ANMF (Vic Branch) would love to hear about how your program is going and your successes.

Easy steps to get your PVC recycling started: • Find colleagues interested in recycling waste and willing to take action in your unit or ward and set up a green team.

• Approach your manager (and the green team) to build a plan – including staff awareness.

• Identify all the products you can recover and the hospital departments you need to talk to – there may be something already in place.

• Visit the Vinyl Council’s PVC recycling website http://goo.gl/m8VdpK for info and ideas and share the videos with your green team and NUM. • Once you’ve started, keep records of how much PVC is being segregated.

Inspect regularly (if possible, have a green team roster).

• Work on the easy wins and share them with colleagues.

• Make it easy to do the right thing – put bins in easy reach.

• Make it fun!

Members can find out more about the PVC recycling program on the Vinyl Council Australia website: http://goo.gl/m8VdpK

Hobsons Bay nurses vote for industrial action Maternal and child health nurses working for Hobsons Bay City Council have voted on taking protected industrial action over a new enterprise agreement.

The council has refused to append the Local Government Award 2015 to the agreement and has not offered nurses any improvement in their conditions.

This is despite Minister Jenny Mikakos having increased funding to the Maternal and Child Health Service by nearly 16 per cent in the 2016–17 financial year.

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November 2016

The Local Government Award 2015 issued by the Fair Work Commission last year contains minimum conditions such as annual leave entitlements that apply nationally to all registered nurses and midwives in Australia.

which they would be entitled under the Local Government Award 2015. This was rejected by the council.

Crucially, it also defines qualifications required for local government registered nurses and midwives, and maternal and child health nurses.

Visit anmfvic.gov.au for further information about the Hobsons Bay City Council protected industrial action.

The council put an enterprise agreement out to a staff ballot without the endorsement of unions and their members.

ANMF (Vic Branch) members working for Hobsons Bay City Council offered to forgo their entitlement to end-of-band leave, equating to three days annual leave, to secure the additional week of leave to www.anmfvic.asn.au

Job Representative training – November 2016 – metro and regional programs Program one: Introduction to your union and your role This single-day program is for new Job Reps and a refresher for Job Reps who did their initial training at least three years ago. This program provides information and guidance to get you started or continue in the ANMF Job Representative role including: • ANMF structure and functions • k ey rights, role and responsibilities of the ANMF Job Rep and the ANMF organiser role; communication networks • a basic introduction to industrial relations legislation and the making of enterprise agreements • y our rights at work, recruitment, and strategies to raise ANMF's profile at your workplace.

Melbourne-based programs are scheduled for metro-based Job Reps, and the regional programs are reserved for Job Reps according to your organiser area.

Your Union - Your Role program dates Metro: ANMF House, Melbourne, 15 November, 9am - 4.30pm

Program two: Keeping it organised This program flows on from the 2015 workplace organising programs, and is open to all Job Representatives, specific to your organiser and workplace/area.

Get support, information and skills to organise your workplace, communication networks, and increase member engagement.

Learn how to monitor the implementation of your enterprise agreement and to maintain your rights at work. Review and renew your 2015 organising plans (if applicable).

Register online For registrations or information about any of this Job Rep training you can: • Go to the website at anmfvic.asn.au • Phone 03 9275 9333 or 1800 133 353 (for regional reps) and ask for Job Rep training • Email jrt@anmfvic.asn.au

HSR Initial OHS Training Course (WorkSafe approved)

Nurses, midwives and personal care workers are exposed to many hazards including manual handling, violence and aggression, bullying and harassment, stress, shiftwork, hazardous substances and infectious diseases.

9-11, 24-25 November Time: 9am – 5pm each day Venue: Carson Conference Centre, ANMF House, 540 Elizabeth St, Melb Cost: $750 (payable by employer).

Register online: anmfvic.asn.au/hsr-training

Become an HSR or upgrade your HSR skills at one of our courses listed below.

As these programs are organiser and workplace/area specific programs, it’s an opportunity to work directly with your organiser and other Job Representatives from your workplace.

Keeping it organised program dates Metro: ANMF House, Melbourne, 8–9 November – Lisa Stingel 30 Nov–1 December – Cynthia Salmons and Christian Sanderson Extra Introduction Program in Melbourne – November 15 2016

OHS courses

HSRs are the highly dedicated representatives who work to maintain a safe and professional workplace.

Learn how to organise around workplace issues and maintain a strong ANMF presence in the workplace.

Due to demand from new Job Reps we have added another course to the schedule. To register for this go to the website, login to the Job Reps area, go to the Find a Job Rep Course link and then look for the 'Your Union Your Role - an Introduction for Job Reps course on 15 November

This course relates specifically to health and aged care workplaces, with a strong focus on issues and hazards relevant to nursing and midwifery, and is designed to equip elected HSRs and Deputy HSRs with an understanding of the OHS regulatory framework.

It is also designed to provide participants with the skills required to implement effective hazard control strategies in the workplace.

2017 OHS course dates 2 March

HSR Refresher OHS Training Course 1

15 , 16, 17 and 30, 31 March

HSR Initial OHS Training Course 1

4 May

HSR Refresher OHS Training Course 2

12 May

Psychosocial Hazards in the Workplace Conference

31 May

HSR Initial OHS Training Course 2 – Pt1

1 , 2 June

HSR Initial OHS Training Course 2 - Pt1

The HSR is entitled to time off work with pay and the costs associated with attendance at the course paid by the employer.

15, 16 June

HSR Initial OHS Training Course 2 - Pt2

28 June

Regional HSR Refresher OHS Training Course 1

6 July

HSR Refresher OHS Training Course 3

Under OHS legislation and guidelines, employers must not obstruct or prevent Health and Safety Representatives from attending an approved course.

10 August

Regional HSR Refresher OHS Training Course 2

23, 24, 25 August

HSR Initial OHS Training Course 3 – Pt1

7, 8 September

HSR Initial OHS Training Course 3 – Pt2

12 October

HSR Refresher OHS Training Course 4

27 October

ANMF OHS Conference

1, 2, 3, 16 and 17 November

HSR Initial OHS Training Course 4

7 December

HSR Refresher OHS Training Course 5

Under Section 67 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, HSRs and Deputy HSRs, after being elected, are entitled to attend a five-day course.

The course must be WorkSafe approved and chosen by the HSR in consultation with their employer.

www.anmfvic.asn.au

November 2016

19

Federal ANMF campaigns for voluntary euthanasia law ANMF has partnered with Go Gentle Australia in running a national campaign to support the passage of voluntary euthanasia legislation in South Australia.

The Be the Bill campaign was aimed at encouraging South Australian politicians to use their conscience vote in favour of voluntary euthanasia.

Driven through social media, the campaign entailed members of the public using a tool to change the word ‘person’ throughout the Bill to their own name, to emphasise that voluntary euthanasia is an issue affecting real people, with real circumstances.

The ‘face’ of the campaign, 35-year-old South Australian Kylie Monaghan, had cancer and passed away on 8 October.

Off Dead after witnessing the difficult and painful death of his father, Kit. The Voluntary Euthanasia Bill was due to be introduced into the South Australian Parliament on 17 October.

The Victorian Government is expected to respond by the end of 2016 to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into end of life choices report, which recommended that assisted dying be legalised for people ‘suffering from a serious and incurable condition who are at the end of life’.

The campaign was launched by Go Gentle Australia director, television and radio personality, Andrew Denton, who spoke eloquently about the issue of assisted dying at the 2016 ANMF (Vic Branch) Delegates Conference.

The Victorian cross-party committee investigated options for the terminally ill for 10 months and made 49 recommendations in their report, including amending the Crimes Act to protect doctors who act within the assisted dying legislation.

Mr Denton explored the issue and produced the podcast series Better

‘The Government should introduce legislation to allow adults with decision-

Special interest groups

Immunisation Nurses

Visit anmfvic.asn.au/interest-groups for all upcoming ANMF (Vic Branch) special interest group news, events and meetings.

Advance Care Planning Nurses (ACPN)

Topic: Executive committee meeting When: Thursday 1 December, 2pm – 4pm Venue: Carson Conference Centre, ANMF House Inq: Anne Marie Fabri, Secretary annemarie.fabri@nh.org.au

9495 3235

ANZANAC HIV Nursing

Inq: Milena Pinamonti anzanac.vic@gmail.com 0466 280 445

CoNSA Vic/Tas

Inq: consavt@gmail.com

Day Surgery

Topic: Members meeting / education session When: Saturday 12 November, 8.30am – 1pm Venue: Goulburn Valley Health, Shepparton (TBC) Inq: Chris Guidotti chris_guidotti@y7mail.com

Diabetes Nurse Educators

Inq: Catherine Wallace-Wilkinson positivehealth@bigpond.com

0411 557 631

Topic: When:

Members meeting Thursday 1 December Registration from 6.30pm Meeting from 7.30pm – 9.30pm Venue: Carson Conference Centre, ANMF House Inq: INSIG administration, membership@immunisationnursesvic.org.au

Injured Nurses Support Group Topic: When: Venue: Inq:

Members meeting Tuesday 15 November, 11am – 12.30pm Level 3 Boardroom , ANMF House Annie Rutter 1300 760 602

making capacity, suffering from a serious and incurable condition who are at the end of life to be provided assistance to die in certain circumstances,’ the committee’s report said.

It said the request to die must come from the patient in the final weeks or months of their life and must be approved by a primary doctor and an independent secondary doctor.

For more information about the Be the Bill campaign, visit www.bethebill.com To read the Inquiry into end of life choices report, visit http://bit.ly/22RB8d0

Pre-Admission Nurses Association

Topic: PaNA professional day When: Saturday 26 November, 8am – 1pm Venue: Carson Conference Centre, ANMF House Inq: Kate Hussey k.hussey@healthscope.com.au

Safe Patient Handling

Inq: Stephen Morley smorley@bendigohealth.org.au

Victorian Association Of Maternal and Child Health Nurses Inq: VAMCHN executive vamchn.group@gmail.com

Medical Imaging Nurses Association

Victorian Association Of Research Nurses

Inq: Deborah Shears deborah.shears@i-med.com.au

Inq: Lesley Poulton lesley.poulton@monash.edu

Mental Health Nurses SIG

Victorian Midwifery Homecare Group

Inq: Carole de Greenlaw records@anmfvic.asn.au

Orthopaedic Nurses Association Inq:

Cheryl Dingey 9345 7027 Meinir Griffiths 9342 8417 onavic@anmfvic.asn.au

Palliative Care Nurses Topic:

Members meeting and joint dinner with CNSA When: Wednesday 16 November, 6.30pm Venue: The Hellenic Republic, Kew Inq: Carole de Greenlaw records@anmfvic.asn.au

Topic: When:

Members meeting Wednesday 7 December, 10.30am – 12.30pm Venue: Carson Conference Centre, ANMF House Inq: Ingrid Ridler IRidler@mercy.com.au

Victorian Perioperative Nurses Group

Inq: enquiries@vpng.org.au 1300 721 169

Victorian School Nurses Inq:

Gina Harrex 0401 717 352

Vic Urological Nurses Society

Inq: vunssecretary@gmail.com

ANMF House is located at 540 Elizabeth St Melbourne

20

November 2016

www.anmfvic.asn.au

Education calendar November 2016

December 2016

RN M

EN IV cannulation for registered RN Venepuncture, conducting nurses and midwives a 12 lead ECG and contemporary CPD: 6 hours, course code: 2036 pathology collection

10 November 2016 9.30am – 4.30pm Presenter Kate Potter

This seminar will focus on the process and procedure for inserting peripheral IV in the adult patient. It includes an overview of relevant anatomy, selection of insertion sites and cannula, insertion techniques, infection control, common problems and corrective action. Identification of appropriate equipment, specific cannulation techniques and participant practice will be conducted utilising manikin simulation

Member $180, Non-member $215, Job Rep or SIG member $170 M An update on pre-eclampsia

CPD: 3 hours, course code: 2074 15 November 2016 9.00am – noon Presenter Dr Wendy Pollock Pre-eclampsia is a complex, multi-system disorder that affects between five to eight per cent of all pregnant women.

This session will provide an update on our understanding of pre-eclampsia and discuss priorities of management related to prevention of the condition, recognition of the condition, acute treatment and long-term implications of the condition for women.

Member $110, Non-member $180, Job Rep or SIG member $100 RN Medication

administration – principles and practice revisited CPD: 12 hours, course code: 2159 17 and 24 November 2016 9.30am – 4.30pm Presenter: Sue Pleunik This two-day workshop is designed to update the register nurse skills in medication administration. Topics covered include administration via all five routes, drug calculations and managing IV pumps, syringe drivers and PCA systems.

Member $360, non-member $420, Job Rep/SIG member $320

CPD: 6 hours, course code: 2042 7 December 2016 9.30am – 4.30pm Presenter Kate Potter This workshop delivers a comprehensive one-day program relating to venepuncture techniques and conducting a 12-lead electrocardiogram. A wide range of practical training aids for blood collection is provided, and the program allows participants to undertake practice of the relevant techniques under guided supervision in a simulated clinical environment. It is a must for nurses who are required to perform phlebotomy and undertake 12-lead ECG recording as part of their role.

Member $180, Non-member $215, Job Rep or SIG member $170 ALL

ICE/methamphetamine addiction seminar – nurse/midwife program CPD: 3 hours 8 December 2016 9.30am – 12.30pm Presenter Sharon Patterson ANMF (Vic Branch) is pleased to be partnering with Turning Point to deliver this seminar.

This seminar is funded by the Victorian Government as an outcome of the Premier’s Ice Action Taskforce.

These face-to-face seminars are designed to complement the standard Frontline Worker Ice Training Package released earlier this year. https://nceta.androgogic.com.au/ The seminars will explore ice/ methamphetamine use in Australia, the science of addiction and effects on brain and behaviour, and ice/methamphetamine use and mental health.

This is a critical topic for nurses and midwives and provides an opportunity for professionals who may encounter a person affected by the addiction, to hear from industry experts and to ask any questions they may have.

This course is relevant for nurses and midwives working across the health sector including in the community, emergency departments and general practice.

On completion of this seminar attendees will be able to:

Course key ALL

RN EN M

Course available to all nurses, midwives, PCAs and AINs Course available to registered nurses Course available to enrolled nurses Course available to midwives

• describe the pharmacological effects of methamphetamine • identify cognitive and behavioural problems related to methamphetamine use • describe withdrawal management • respond effectively to challenging behaviour • list three methamphetamine information and referral services for patients and /or their family.

You can register online or via the ANMF (Vic Branch) Education Centre registration form in OTR, or call the ANMF (Vic Branch) Education Centre for further information on 03 9275 9363.

These seminars are limited to 20 places so will fill quickly.

Rural and regional seminars will be available in 2017; we will place scheduled dates and locations on the ANMF (Vic Branch) website Education Calendar and in OTR as they become available.

Please email Libby Muir, ANMF (Vic Branch) CPD and Environmental Health Officer on lmuir@anmfvic.asn.au if you have any questions about rural and regional sessions.

EN Strengthening

practice

EN medication

CPD: 6 hours, course code: 2150 9 December 2016 9.30am – 4.30pm Presenter Jennifer Irwin This seminar will assist enrolled nurses to further develop and apply their skills and knowledge in the nursing practice area of medications. The learning will apply to a variety of health care settings and with reference to the professional practice framework. This seminar also aims to build upon skills and knowledge attained through completion of the nationally accredited units associated with NMBA approved enrolled nurse medication administration requirements and work practice.

Member $180, Non-member $215, Job Rep or SIG member $170

• reflect on the impact of their values and attitudes to methamphetamine use

www.anmfvic.asn.au

November 2016

21

2017 courses RN Managing

fluid and electrolyte administration and blood transfusion in the acute care setting CPD: 6 hours, course code: 6 April 2017 9.30am - 4.30pm Presenter: Kate Potter This in-depth seminar discusses the theories and assessments behind various fluid therapies. The focus is on advanced understanding and skill development for nurses managing fluids in the acute patient. The why, what and when of fluid, blood and blood products orders and their clinical effects are covered in this seminar.

Member $180, non-member $215, Job Rep/SIG member $170 ALL

Clinical Supervision for Role Development Training 2017 course.

4, 5, 6 April; 6, 7, 8 June; 15, 16 August 8.45am (for 9.00am start) – 4.30pm Facilitators: Paul Spurr and Bernadette Towner Don’t miss this excellent new course that provides managers, and those seeking to work in staff management, with the skills and techniques to help them facilitate quality clinical supervision sessions to inspire others to develop their professional practice and self-management.

Members feedback shows ANMF CPD skills particularly useful at work ANMF (Vic Branch) Education Centre CPD feedback shows our seminars and workshops meet or exceed the expectations of attendees. At each session attendees give their feedback on ANMF (Vic Branch) Education Centre CPD and this feedback is collated and taken very seriously.

This year feedback from attendees shows that an average of 98 per cent of respondents agreed that they received benefits from the seminars/workshop they attended in all areas surveyed.

ANMF (Vic Branch) is keen to continue developing seminars and workshops that bring professional skills development opportunities to members. In 2017 we are continuing with many of our seminars and also adding new seminars in nursing leadership and work relationship management as well as environmental sustainability and paediatrics.

These seminars are developed in consultation with content specialists and educators.

We are also very pleased to have received funding from the Andrews Government to deliver, in partnership with Turning Point, the ICE/Methamphetamine training throughout Victoria. We aim to be able to deliver 16 rural and regional sessions and 10 metropolitan sessions.

Feedback about the seminars and workshops included: “ This session has increased my knowledge of the topic” “ I will be able to apply the acquired knowledge and skills in my work role” “ The facilitator positively assisted my learning through their knowledge of the subject matter” “ Excellent presenter, deep knowledge and presenter skills” “ Wealth of knowledge well presented, delivered and from current industry standards to above them” “ Great Facilitator would like to attend more of this course” “ Wonderful presenter keeps everyone interested excellent” “ Gave me the incentive to learn more/revise on the relevant subjects” “ Great study day I'll recommend it to my colleagues”.

Dates will be announced as soon as they are confirmed with Turning Point and the regional centre health services.

The eight-day training is spread over three workshops (3 days + 3 days + 2 days), and these courses are offered at ANMF (Vic Branch).

Cost of this course is $2,800 including a deposit made with this application and three instalments aligned with each workshop. For more information visit http://goo.gl/ab61gm

Acute Management of Minor Burns, Introduction to Alcohol and other Drugs, Type 1 Diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes, Gestational Diabetes, Endoscopy etc.

The above modules are six examples of the available online modules you as an ANMF (Vic. Branch) member can access to gain your CPD hours.

All the online modules and case studies are written by professional organisations/clinical experts and provide 2 or 4 hours instruction with assessment questions and certificate upon completion.

22

November 2016

Register online at: http://cpd.anmfvic.asn.au

www.anmfvic.asn.au



Course registration form

Register online at anmfvic.asn.au/education or complete this form and return to the ANMF education centre.

PLEASE USE BLOCK LETTERS First course:

Course name

Course code

Second course: Course name

Venue

The ANMF (Vic Branch) Education Centre, ANMF (Vic Branch) Registered Training Organisation (RTO ID: 22609), nursing laboratory and library are located near the Melbourne CBD at ANMF House, 540 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne.

Personal details

Upcoming course program Visit anmfvic.asn.au/education for information about these and upcoming courses.

Continuing professional development (CPD)

Course date(s)

Please circle:

Course code

Course date(s)

Ms / Miss / Mrs / Mr

Last name First name DOB Street address Suburb Postcode Phone hm

wk

mob email workplace

All nurses and midwives are required to undertake 20 hours of continuing professional development each year as part of the requirements to re-register with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. For information visit nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au

Please circle:

Costs

Please circle:

Significant discounts on many Education Centre courses (excluding government-funded courses) are available to ANMF members, Job Reps and ANMF Special Interest Group members.

Courses may be tax deductible.

Ask your tax consultant for advice.

Credit card number

AIN/PCA

Registered nurse

ANMF member: yes / no

Job Rep / SIG member

Enrolled nurse

Midwife

Member no.

NMBA registration no Payment details (please note AMEX is not accepted) Cheque

Credit card

Money order

Expiry Amount: $ Cardholder name Cardholder signature Please forward fully completed registration form and payment: ANMF (Vic Branch) Education Centre Box 12600 A’Beckett Street Post Office Melbourne Vic 8006 OR scan and email to education@anmfvic.asn.au Once payment is received a receipt will be posted to you.

Please make cheques payable to ANMF (Vic Branch) Education Centre.

Disclaimer

ANMF (Vic Branch) Education Centre (ABN No 1716 9548 707) will endeavour to ensure that the speakers and content for this seminar proceed as advertised. However, unexpected circumstances may necessitate the utilisation of a replacement speaker(s). ANMF (Vic Branch) Education Centre disclaims any liability for any errors/omissions in terms of information provided at this educational event.

Refunds and cancellations

The decision to proceed with or reschedule a seminar is based on the number of participants registered, however if ANMF (Vic Branch) Education Centre cancels a session you will receive a full refund.

If you cancel your registration the following will apply: a) Over seven days notification, full refund (less 10 per cent administrative fee) b) Less than seven days notification no refund will apply.

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