Ashburton Guardian, Wednesday, September 19, 2018

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Wednesday, Sept 19, 2018

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Nurse shortage in aged care critical BY SUE NEWMAN

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A crisis in aged care nursing is no longer, coming, it’s here, say staff working in the sector. The flood of registered nurses leaving aged care is constant and that’s leaving those still in the job struggling to cope with an ever-increasing workload. Nurses are leaving aged residential care in droves for better paid jobs and better working conditions in DHB facilities and recruiting and retaining nursing staff was now at crisis level, New Zealand Aged Care Association chief executive, Simon Wallace, said. “Effectively, we’re down by nearly 10 per cent in nursing staff, who are the skilled employees we desperately need to provide safe and quality care for our

most vulnerable older citizens,” he said. Nurses are moving from the aged care sector and new graduates were looking elsewhere for jobs, Wallace said. “Potentially, we’re looking at being down by up to 1000 nurses in a very short space of time. That’s unsustainable.” The shortage of nurses was already taking its toll with some private facilities opting to close because they could not staff them adequately, he said. “Our latest data shows that 38 per cent of our members are facing increased difficulty recruiting internationally qualified nurses on visas since the policy change. And 65 per cent are facing increased difficulty in trying to recruit New Zealand citizens and resident registered nurses.” The annual turnover for registered

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nurses in the aged care sector had risen from 26 per cent in February 2017 to nearly 38 per cent as of July this year, he said. An Ashburton nurse, who did not want to be named, said that after 20-plus years in aged care, she opted to leave the job she loved because of rising stress levels. The difficulty in finding experienced registered nurses willing to work for wages that were below those paid by district health boards and the need to work long shifts without extra pay was taking a toll on her health and leaving became her only option, she said.

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