tqn Apr14

VOL. 33 | NO. 2 | APRIL 2014

THE QUEENSLAND NURSE

What will happen to Medicare?

2014

SCHOLARSHIPS AND BOOK BURSARIES QNU members have an opportunity to win one of a great range of financial support packages thanks to the 2014 scholarships and book bursaries.

There will be one round of scholarships in 2014.

Applications for all scholarships must be received by Monday 19 May 2014.

Each scholarship may be awarded in full to one recipient, or in part to multiple recipients.

All QNU members are welcome to apply— this includes international students and nurses and midwives on working visas.

SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE QNU Registered Nurse/Midwife Scholarship (total value of $3000) QNU Enrolled Nurse Scholarship (total value of $3000) QNU Assistant in Nursing Scholarship (total value of $3000) Applicants must be financial members of the QNU for the 12 months preceding the application, and currently registered or employed in Queensland.

Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Nurse/Midwife Scholarship (total value of $3000) Applicants must be currently working in or studying nursing or midwifery and be a financial member of the QNU. Pat Nicholls Scholarship (total value of $500) Applicants must be QNU members for the 12 months preceding the application, and working to advance diabetes education and promotion.

Bauer-Wiles Book Bursary (total value of $300) Available only to Registered Nurses/Midwives who have been financial members of the QNU for the 12 months preceding the application.

University and TAFE Student Book Bursaries (Eight at $500 each) Applicants must be university or TAFE students who are QNU members and must provide proof of enrolment.

QNU Annual Conference Observers Five scholarships are available to pre-enrolment/pre-registration students in nursing and midwifery to attend the QNU Annual Conference (16-18 July 2014) as observers. These scholarships cover travel and accommodation where necessary, conference registration and the conference dinner.

APPLICATION FORMS Go to www.qnu.org.au/scholarships to download application forms.

You can also obtain application forms by contacting QNU Connect on 07 3099 3210 or toll free on 1800 177 273.

APPLICATIONS CLOSE MONDAY 19 MAY 2014

10 The official journal of the Queensland Nurses’ Union 106 Victoria Street, West End Q 4101 (GPO Box 1289, Brisbane Q 4001) T 07 3840 1444 1800 177 273 (toll free) F 07 3844 9387 E qnu@qnu.org.au W www.qnu.org.au ISSN 0815-936X ABN No. 84 382 908 052 Editor Beth Mohle, Secretary, QNU Production QNU Communications team Published by the Queensland Nurses’ Union of Employees Printed by Fergies Print and Mail

VOL. 33 | NO. 2 | APRIL 2014

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REGIONAL OFFICES Toowoomba 66 West St, Toowoomba Q 4350 (PO Box 3598, Village Fair, Toowoomba Q 4350) T 07 4659 7200 F 07 4639 5052 E qnutwmba@qnu.org.au Bundaberg 44 Maryborough St, Bundaberg Q 4670 (PO Box 2949, Bundaberg Q 4670) T 07 4199 6101 F 07 4151 6066 E qnubberg@qnu.org.au Rockhampton Suite 1, Trade Union Centre 110 Campbell Street, Rockhampton Q 4700 (PO Box 49, Rockhampton Q 4700) T 07 4922 5390 F 07 4922 3406 E qnurocky@qnu.org.au Townsville 1 Oxford Street, Hyde Park Q 4812 (PO Box 3389, Hermit Park Q 4812) T 07 4772 5411 F 07 4721 1820 E qnutsvle@qnu.org.au

FEATURE What will happen to Medicare?

29

Cairns Suite 2, 320 Sheridan St, North Cairns Q 4870 (PO Box 846N, North Cairns Q 4870) T 07 4031 4466 F 07 4051 6222 E qnucairns@qnu.org.au DISCLAIMER Statements expressed in articles in The Queensland Nurse are those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the policy of the Queensland Nurses’ Union unless this is so stated. Copyright of articles remains with the contributor and may not be reproduced without permission.

Statements of facts are believed to be true but no responsibility for inaccuracy can be accepted. Other material may be reproduced only by written arrangement with the Union.

Although all accepted advertising material is expected to conform to the QNU’s ethical standards, such acceptance does not imply endorsement.

PRIVACY STATEMENT The QNU collects personal information from members in order to perform our role of representing their industrial and professional interests. We place great emphasis on maintaining and enhancing the privacy and security of your personal information. Personal information is protected under law and can only be released to someone else where the law requires or where you give permission. If you have concerns about your personal information please contact your nearest QNU office. If you are still not satisfied that your privacy is being maintained you can contact the Privacy Commissioner whose 1800 number is in the phone book.

www.qnu.org.au

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Your union Editorial Your say Tea room Local news National news International news Campaign news

44 24 28 30

Feature

32

Continuing professional development

35 36 39

Midwifery

Professional Nursing and midwifery research

Industrial

40 42 44 45 46 47 48

Health and safety Opinion Social Library Calendar Your super Advertising

Profile APRIL 2014 | TQN | 1

YOUR UNION

Doing more with less: complexity compression SALLY-ANNE JONES, QNU PRESIDENT

Health is an increasingly complex environment to navigate through as a patient and to work in as a nurse or midwife.

The once-straightforward bedside care given by nurses has exponentially blown out as technology, medical knowledge, diagnostics and treatment have grown.

The ways in which we gather, interpret and use information to deliver nursing or midwifery care will always evolve as we learn more about body function and the causes and management of disease.

We must also consider patient safety imperatives, public accountability, mandatory training, reporting requirements, and constant change.

These all add demands on a nurse or midwife’s time, affecting not only job satisfaction but also the impact on patients.

This phenomenon is described by US nursing academic Kathleen Krichbaum as “complexity compression”.

According to Krichbaum, nurses and midwives experience complexity compression when they are expected to assume additional, unplanned responsibilities while simultaneously conducting their current multiple responsibilities in a condensed time frame.

There is much already in nursing and midwifery literature exploring the links between job satisfaction, workloads, patient satisfaction, and outcomes.

The themes identified in the study that contribute to complexity compression are incredibly familiar to us and seven years after publication are as relevant to us as ever:

YOUR COUNCIL

Personal  work/life balance  fatigue  tiredness.

Environmental  physical surroundings at work – lack of room to do the work required

 conflict with co-workers  physical or verbal abuse from patients  cultural issues such as lack of trust and respect, time clock pressures, decreased loyalty to institution.

Practice  responsibility for oversight, assignment and coordination of tasks by others

 competing demands of equal

importance unfamiliar tasks time specifications no system support special cultural or emotional needs of patients  mentoring or preceptoring responsibilities.

   

Systems  system failures  multiple new processes or constant      

changes no safety net new forms new regulations or legal requirements budget staffing technology.

Administration and management  inexperienced leadership, careless management and indifferent administrators  numerous and unpredictable changes at management level  mismatch of style and philosophy.

Autonomy and control  no input into decision making  input not valued.

While this seems like a long and predictable list, it perfectly explains how

nurses and midwives feel in every clinical setting.

In Australia, complexity compression is a very current and real concern as health reform agendas, reduction in health spending, the call for greater efficiencies, and role substitution in every sector reshape the way in which health care is planned, resourced and delivered.

At the same time, consumer expectations of health services are increasing.

Our challenge is to think of ways to manage the excessive demands the system places upon us, so we can continue to keep our patients safe and at the centre of everything we do.

Workloads can be monitored, measured and reported, and the impact on patient outcomes is well documented.

By being alert to the complexity of the environment we work in, staying abreast of the changes health policy and systems, working together, and advocating for patient safety through ratios, skill-mix, education and registration, we can continue to keep patients safe.

Sally-Anne

Secretary Beth Mohle ■ Assistant Secretary Des Elder ■ President Sally-Anne Jones ■ Vice President Stephen Bone Councillors Grant Burton ■ Christine Cocks ■ Barbara Jean Cook ■ Karen Cooke ■ Dianne Corbett ■ Jean Crabb ■ Sandra Eales Julie Gard ■ Phillip Jackson ■ Damien Lawson ■ David Lewis ■ Lucynda Maskell ■ Simon Mitchell ■ Fiona C.A. Monk Sue Pitman ■ Karen Shepherd ■ Katy Taggart ■ Kym Volp ■ Deborah Watt ■ Di Webb ■ Charmaine Wicking

2 | TQN | APRIL 2014

www.qnu.org.au

EDITORIAL

We will NEVER be silenced BETH MOHLE, QNU SECRETARY

Our third Professional Practice and Ethics conference held on 7 March was a great success.

We were reminded by every speaker just why we started our careers in nursing or midwifery—because we wanted to make a difference through providing, as QNU Councillor Kym Volp puts it, indispensable, knowledgeable human caring.

Margaret Vider—a Commissioner for the first Bundaberg Hospital Inquiry— reminded us why we need to speak out together when we see something preventing us from delivering high quality, person-centred nursing and midwifery services.

Nurses and midwives at the Mater Public Hospital have spoken out together recently in their struggle to achieve a fair enterprise agreement.

In early March, Mater nurses and midwives voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking protected industrial action. This is not a small step— although we go to great lengths to ensure any action will not impact on patient safety.

It is very rare for nurses and midwives to vote for industrial action but such is the frustration with Mater management, who continue to refuse to pass on the taxpayer money they received for pay increases.

Mater Public nurses and midwives have not had a pay increase for three years.

Since 1 April they have been 9% behind their counterparts in Queensland Health. www.qnu.org.au

The Mater brought in the legal big guns to prevent us from going ahead with a stop-work meeting, flying in not one but two barristers from Sydney.

We cannot accept this treatment of nurses and midwives. We need to be able to provide legal defence for our members when necessary.

This is what the Nurse Power Fund is intended for. The Nurse Power Fund will provide us with greater capacity to stand up to delaying, bullying and intimidation tactics across all sectors.

The Nurse Power Fund will also permit us to tell our stories our way.

Recent encounters with local media representatives have made very clear the QNU cannot rely on traditional media to give us a fair run.

The media can, and often do, get their stories wrong. Just look at the recent inaccurate reporting of our Nurse Power Fund on the front page of the Courier Mail.

The QNU spent considerable time providing the journalist responsible for this article with detailed information about the fund and its purpose.

But the truth did not fit into the sensationalised story they wanted to write, and so instead we got the inaccurate front page article.

I contacted the journalist involved to complain and request a correction of the record. A correction was issued—not on the front page of the Courier Mail where the story first appeared, but hidden away on the online edition.

Queensland is a concentrated media environment. There is very little diversity.

It is not good for our democracy to have only one side of the story being told, especially when that side is factually incorrect.

The power of newspaper editors needs more analysis. I know of one diligent health reporter with a very good reputation for fair and accurate

reporting, whose stories are consistently pulled by the editor.

This is why we need new ways to get our stories out through new media and other avenues.

The Nurse Power Fund will better equip us to do this. We need to minimise paid advertising in media outlets that refuse to provide fair and unbiased coverage.

At a time when political power is being increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, we need to tell our stories about nursing and midwifery, about working in health and aged care, about problems in these sectors, and about our solutions to these problems.

There are powerful groups trying to silence us. Our Nurse Power Fund is an important mechanism to help us ensure this does not occur.

Beth APRIL 2014 | TQN | 3

YOUR SAY

Support for Mater nurses and midwives While I have never had treatment at the Mater Public (at least since my mother gave birth to me at the Mater Mothers), I know several people treated by their oncology unit, and my aunt works there.

The advice given by the nursing staff there to members of my family while the initial search for a bone marrow donor for me was of great help, and I have never heard a bad word said about the care provided by any nursing staff at the Mater.

All nurses are under recognised and underpaid given the services and care they provide to patients.

Nikolai Lusan via Facebook

I was in having surgery at Mater Public last week, and was shocked to hear about the sad state of their agreement negotiations.

I think management need to wake up to the fact that these staff have clearly had enough—it was the hot topic everywhere I went in the hospital.

Despite having their own dramas, I can’t thank the wonderful nurses enough for the first class treatment I received while there.

Jonathan Ring via Facebook

Mater Nurses stay strong and united.

You deserve everything you have been fighting for.

My little girl loved her nurses every time we needed to stay at MCH, and as her mum I am eternally grateful for

the outstanding kindness, passion and dedication by this incredible team.

Stand proud! Stay strong!

Kym Frost via Facebook

Former relatives of patients and patients of Mater Public support all medical staff.

We have witnessed your professional, caring and experienced health service to public patients.

The government along with Mater managers have got it so wrong in treating their medical employees this way.

Shame on them.

Valentia Lukus via Facebook

Good luck to you all, you have always supported your colleagues in the Public Sector it is now our time to support you.

It is never easy to take a stand but you are not alone, you have your work colleagues beside you and your Public Sector cousins behind united together.

Stand tall and proud.

Katy Taggart via Facebook

HAVE YOUR SAY tqn welcomes letters for publication.

QNU Mater members donned shades of orange on Friday March 21 to mark the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence, and National Harmony Day.

Nurses and midwives keep the big picture in mind Went along to the Springborg/Maddern Health Forum in Maryborough today.

Unfortunately I didn’t get inside to hear the speakers (I’m told I didn’t miss much) so I lined up with the QNU members protesting outside.

I spent a pleasant time there.

What struck me about these people from the QNU was their attitude.

These people are fighting hard but when you break it down there’s not a lot in it for them directly.

They are fighting to maintain the health standards of the community.

4 | TQN | APRIL 2014

Things like the downgrading of the Hervey Bay ICU and the removal of services from the Maryborough Hospital, impact nurses certainly but mainly as a consequence not as a direct result.

The message I got was definitely concern for the community, not look what’s happening to us.

It’s an attitude a lot of unionist would do well to adopt.

Fight for yourselves—yes, but keep the bigger picture in mind and look at winning the war and not the battle.

Well done QNU. Ian Barber via Facebook

Letters should be no more than 200 words. Anonymous letters will not be published (we will consider withholding names, but do not accept unsigned letters).

Photos may be colour or black and white.

All material will go to the Editorial Committee.

Send all material in the first instance to: The Editor, The Queensland Nurse, GPO Box 1289, Brisbane 4001 or by email to dsmith@qnu.org.au or by sms to 0481 381 837 The views contained in the ‘Your Say’ page do not necessarily reflect the views of the QNU. For more information and guidance on writing and submitting a letter for inclusion in the ‘Your Say’ section refer to the QNU’s Letter to the Editor policy at www.qnu.org.au/letters-policy

Connect with us:

/qldnursesunion www.qnu.org.au

TEA ROOM

tea r

m

WITH DES ELDER, QNU ASSISTANT SECRETARY

We sometimes take it for granted that everyone knows their entitlements.

However, for new entrants to the nursing and midwifery workforce it is often difficult to understand the plethora of entitlements and payslips covering our profession.

In fact many nurses and midwives are uncertain about which allowances, loadings and penalties they are entitled to given the diversity of their work and working hours.

The following questions are frequently asked of our QNU Connect information service.

I was recently injured at work. My employer has requested I see the company’s doctor. Do I have to, or can I go to my own GP? You are under no obligation to see your employer’s doctor. Your GP can assess you and complete the claim form for WorkCover.

You are entitled to be assessed by a doctor or, if the injury is minor, a nurse practitioner of your choice. If you suffer an oral injury, you may be assessed by a dentist of your choice.

Be aware once your claim is received

by WorkCover (or in the case of self insured employers, their insurer), you can be required to attend assessment by a medical officer of the insurer’s choice in order to be eligible for worker’s compensation payments for the period you are unable to work.

I have recently started full-time work at a public hospital. Am I entitled to an accrued day off ?

If you work a 10-day fortnight of 8-hour shifts you should receive a paid accrued day off (ADO) after every 19 days worked. www.qnu.org.au

You can accumulate a maximum of 5 days. In exceptional circumstances you can accrue a maximum of 12 days.

Your ADO should not be rostered on a public holiday. If your ADO is rostered on a weekend the applicable penalty must be paid for that day.

I am an RN and have recently returned to work with Queensland Health after a break of three years. What pay point should I receive?

If you return to work with Queensland Health after a break of service, your previous experience at the relevant nursing/midwifery level will be taken into account—but the years of absence will also be considered.

Provided your absence has been less than five years, you should return to the pay point you were on when you left Queensland Health.

For example, if you worked for ten years before taking a break, you should have been receiving the top pay point, Grade 5 pay point 7.

This is the pay point you should return to so long as your absence was less than five years, and you provide proof of your previous experience to your employer within four weeks of returning to work.

If you don’t provide proof within four weeks you will not receive the correct rate until you do provide proof.

If you have been absent for more than five years, your pay point may drop.

The Queensland Health Nurses and Midwives Award – State 2011 provides a matrix explaining the pay point you should return to depending on the length of your absence.

The pay point matrix can be found at clause 5.11.9 of the award.

I am an AIN employed in private aged care. How many weeks annual leave am I entitled to?

You should receive five weeks annual leave. This equates to 190 hours per year.

If you work part-time you should receive pro-rata (proportional payment). For example, if you work three days per week, you should receive five weeks at three days per week – 114 hours per year (5 weeks x 3 days x 7.6 hours a day).

Your accrual will vary depending on any variation in your weekly hours.

If you are shift worker, you should receive six weeks per year.

The definition of shift worker is contained in your enterprise agreement, or in the absence of an agreement or where the agreement is silent, the Nurses Award 2010.

If you have questions for our tea room column email qnu@qnu.org.au

ROVDPOOFDU QI 41::4321

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 5

NEWS

Sharp rise in immediate action notifications against nurses and midwives In July last year the QNU became concerned at the steep rise in the number of nurses and midwives receiving immediate action notifications from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).

Immediate action is a serious matter.

It is undertaken by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) when it believes a health practitioner’s practice poses an immediate risk to public health and safety.

In 2011-12, only a few members needed QNU assistance with immediate action notifications, so we had good reason to ask AHPRA why there was such an increase this year.

There was some concern the increase may have been the result of the NMBA’s efforts to appear more conscientious after the state government criticised and sacked the Queensland Medical Board, abolished the Heath Quality and Complaints

Commission, and replaced them both with a new Health Ombudsman for Queensland.

AHPRA responded the increase may be a ‘statistical anomaly’.

However, the trend continued and the QNU has now assisted about 35 members who have received immediate action notifications. The number is still increasing.

The QNU made sure each of the 35 nurses and midwives—all financial members—received expert legal assistance from our panel of lawyers.

Submissions to AHPRA were made on their behalf, with some interesting outcomes.

In most cases the outcome was much better than expected, with either NO immediate action taken in more than 40% of cases, or penalties and conditions imposed that were less severe than those initially proposed by the NMBA. Members whose matters have proceeded to investigation are continuing to receive QNU assistance.

Unfortunately, the QNU received three cases at a later stage where the nurse or midwife had already made their own submission without the benefit of QNU legal assistance.

In each case, this resulted in immediate action being taken by the NMBA. What should you do if you receive an immediate action notification?

Remember: QNU members receive free expert legal assistance with their AHPRA matters. This increases your chances of a better outcome, and could save you thousands of dollars.

If you receive an immediate action notification, contact QNU immediately. Response timeframes are generally very tight.

Be sure to provide the QNU with all relevant documents, including AHPRA correspondence.

6 | TQN | APRIL 2014

Recruitment for new children’s hospital proving difficult Nurses and midwives from both the Royal Children’s Hospital and the Mater Children’s Hospital have begun applying for positions in the new Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital, scheduled to open in November.

Instead of simply transferring to the new hospital, nurses and midwives were required to apply for positions.

It is essential that information about the process and timelines of recruitment is clear.

Nurses and midwives at the Mater in particular reported problems accessing information on how and when they were to apply for new positions.

The QNU assisted members at both sites by hosting an information session on the job application process at the QNU Office in Brisbane.

The session was conducted by hospital nursing executives, and gave nurses and midwives fthe opportunity to have their questions answered.

Another session held in late March focussed on preventing burn-out and building resilience. The response to both of these events was excellent.

The first round of recruitment finished in mid-March.

Unfortunately, some nurses and midwives missed out on securing positions in this first round but we are hopeful they will secure suitable positions in the next round of recruitment. www.qnu.org.au

NEWS

Annual conference will receive a report on the operation of the fund and consider any variations to the weekly contribution amount.

The purpose of the fund is to ensure the QNU has sufficient resources to conduct campaigns in nurses’ and midwives’ interests.

THE FUND Where is the money going?

This year is all about power—nurse power and midwife power.

Delegates at QNU Annual Conference last year unanimously voted for the establishment of a ‘Nurse Power Fund’— to ensure nurses’ and midwives’ power will grow.

Resolution 1.1 reads: That annual conference endorses establishment of a “Nurse Power” fund to support our campaigning, organising and community engagement activities.

This fund will be maintained for the specific purposes of:  raising and improving the public awareness of nurses and midwives and the professions  defending and advancing nurses’ and midwives’ pay and conditions of employment  advocating for adequate funding for the health system  building union strength across all health and aged care sectors  supporting the union’s community engagement and community based campaigning activities.

From 1 July 2014, all QNU members regardless of designation and employment status (excluding inactive members) will contribute up to $1 per week as a flat rate or an amount equivalent to a maximum of 25% of current annual fees whichever is the lesser to the “Nurse Power” fund in addition to their regular union fees. This amount is in addition to any annual CPI related fee increase to be determined

by Council at its April 2014 meeting. www.qnu.org.au

Enhancing our campaigning power Unfortunately, in the current political and industrial environment, it is inevitable nurses and midwives will again come under attack by the government and some employers.

It is vital the QNU is able to plan for and respond to these attacks without detracting from our ability to provide the full range of services we deliver to members, including enterprise agreement negotiations, individual member matters, training and education, legal services, and many more.

Up to 75% of the Nurse Power Fund will be used for emerging campaigns.

25% will be retained as a reserve to build up resources for nursing and midwifery power over time.

Influencing political decisionmakers The QNU’s political agenda has always been about how we can influence political decision-makers to achieve better outcomes for nurses, midwives, our patients and residents, our families, our communities, and the health care system overall.

As the political environment changes, so too will our political strategy, and the resources it requires.

We are currently in a very challenging political environment. Political decision-makers are undermining the fundamental bases of our nursing and midwifery professions.

We must ensure we are fully prepared to counter-act these assaults on our profession.

With Nurse Power we can build up a support fund which will provide us with the resources we need to face the challenges ahead.

The safety of our patients demands no less.

Example: High Court Challenge The Newman government recently passed laws requiring unions to hold a full ballot of members for any ‘political matter’ costing more than $10,000.

This includes paid messages on television, radio, and in major newspapers.

As you can imagine, running a ballot across Queensland for all 50,000 QNU our members every time we want to run a newspaper ad against things like legislation changes that affect nurses and midwives would be impractical. It’s clear this law is really designed to cut nurses and midwives out of the public debate on health care.

The QNU believes the new law violates the principles of freedom of speech. The QNU, along with two other unions, have now filed proceedings in the High Court of Australia challenging the validity of the new laws.

A High Court Challenge is a complex and costly project—but it’s the kind of project we need to undertake to ensure we can tell nurses’ and midwives’ stories.

This is the sort of activity the Nurse Power Fund will help finance.

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 7

NEWS

Hospital in the home takeover The QNU is keeping a close eye on changes to Queensland’s Hospital in the Home services, fearing proposed changes may be the thin edge of a privatisation wedge.

In a media statement released in December last year the state government announced it was ‘expanding’ the Hospital in the Home service across the state—delivered through a ‘communitybased public-private partnership’.

Hospital in the Home (HITH) provides free, home-based hospital-standard care for conditions such as lung infections, blood clots in the leg, and urinary tract infections.

However, recently the state government has begun selling HITH contracts to private providers.

The Metro South service at Redlands was outsourced to Blue Care some time ago, while Metro North and Sunshine Coast’s existing services have now been outsourced to Silver Chain.

The QNU understands Blue Care has recently been awarded a contract to provide a HITH service in Townsville.

The QNU is concerned the government’s decision to turn HITH over to private operators is yet another example of the government washing its hands of its obligation to manage public health and keep it affordable.

Other home-based services now covered by public-private arrangements have seen clients forced to pay for consumables such as cleaning products and wound dressings. These basics of health care were once supplied as part of the public service.

Just who bears the cost? Whether it is the government or the individual service user or the nurse receiving lower pay and conditions who bears the burden of maintaining profits, one thing is clear—we all lose by privatising health services.

Mental Health nurses need meal breaks too!

Mental health nurses at the new Gold Coast Hospital have dug their heels in to retain their meal breaks after moving to the new facility.

Previously nurses in the two mental health wards at the old Southport Hospital had been co-located and were able to provide meal relief for one another.

However at the new Gold Coast facility the two wards are in different buildings, and mental health nurses can no longer support each other during meal breaks.

Although the nurses were paid if they missed a meal break, a number reported significant tiredness from working shifts without the opportunity to leave the clinical environment for a break.

After discussion with the QNU, the nurses asked Gold Coast Hospital management to ensure they received their meal break between the fourth and sixth hour of the shift, as required by the Nurses and Midwives Award 2012.

The nurses also wanted to ensure the hospital rostered enough trained mental health nurses on night shift to permit staff to have their meal break while maintaining patient and staff safety.

Gold Coast Hospital management have put on record their commitment to rectifying these difficulties.

Sometimes it can seem easier to simply skip a break and push through tiredness—but meal breaks are in the award because they make a significant contribution to energy levels and alertness.

Skipping meal breaks as a regular practice—even if you are being paid for it—is unsafe practice and a breach of the award.

If you or your colleagues are finding you are regularly skipping meal breaks, contact the QNU. 8 | TQN | APRIL 2014

www.qnu.org.au

FEATURE

Mother’s Day Classic .... Sunday, 11 May Lace up those sneakers and get those legs pumping ladies and gentlemen, because the Mother’s Day Classic is just around the corner.

Thousands of people around the state will be walking or running on Sunday 11 May to raise money for research into breast cancer programs and the National Breast Cancer Foundation— and you can join them!

With events in Brisbane at Southbank and the Gold Coast at Broadbeach, there will also be a number of regional events held around the state in Bundaberg, Cairns City, Chinchilla, Dalby, Emerald, Hamilton Island, Innisfail, Joyner (North Brisbane), Kingaroy, Mackay, Mitchell, Monto, Palm Cove, Sunshine Coast, Tannum Sands, Texas, Tieri, Tin Can Bay, Toowoomba and Townsville. www.mothersdayclassic.com.au

Members click to digital tqn Your favourite journal, The Queensland Nurse (tqn), has made its digital delivery debut.

About 2000 QNU members have opted to receive tqn in digital format instead of receiving a hard copy and the feedback so far has been very positive.

Our online fans receive an email with a link that gives them direct access to a flipbook or PDF version of the publication which they can read on desktop, laptop, tablet or phone.

This not only saves on printing and delivery costs but also helps the QNU reduce its carbon footprint.

For readers, one of the biggest benefits of going digital is that all the web addresses which appear in the publication are live-linked—which means you can go straight through to extra content with a single click.

If you’d like to go digital, please email Denielle Smith at dsmith@qnu.org.au www.qnu.org.au

MAJOR SPONSOR mebank.com.au

Connect with us

/qldnursesunion

The QNU gets sociable e First it was Twitter, then it was Facebook, now the QNU has added another social media platform to its portfolio—Instagram!

Instagram is a photo-sharing site which allows us to upload photos instantly from our mobile phones when we are at events such as rallies and conferences.

We will also be digging around our photo archives so we can add some ‘Throwback Thursday’ pics, sharing images of our many decades of campaigns and characters—complete with daggy

hair-dos and cringe-worthy fashion!

You can easily open your own Instagram account (it’s free), and send your photos to the QNU—just hashtag us at #qldnursesunion or #qnu Our Facebook account currently has over 1000 likes and is growing each day, while the QNU Twitter has over 530 followers.

All our social media profiles can be found by searching ‘qldnursesunion’.

See you on the interwebz!

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 9

NEWS

WE WIN WHEN WE STAND TOGETHER State governmentt crumbles on Biala… very, very quietly The Newman government has very quietly back flipped on its decision to close the Biala Sexual Health Clinic.

In March last year, the government announced it would close the clinic and force patients to visit GPs for sexual health care and diagnostics.

The clinic is the state’s largest, treating more than 11,000 people each year, including more than 700 HIV patients.

A large and very colourful crowd protested outside Biala after the announcement was made.

Now, the Newman government has reversed its decision unannounced, admitting ‘the current changes reflect the requirement to maintain a higher level of clinical staff than proposed’.

There will now be an increase of 7.85 FTE staff at Biala, including 5.85 FTE Clinical Nurses.

The government has also withdrawn voluntary redundancy offers.

The reversal of the decision to close Biala comes on top of a win by nurses and the community to convince the health minister and reverse the decision on the Tuberculosis Control Centre, which was also slated for closure, and the privatisation of clinical services at the new Sunshine Coast University Hospital.

The fact is, the Newman government has focused on cuts to staffing and services

eexpense pen ns of the health h ds of o at thee ex needs d Queenslanders.

The victory at Biala is another important win by nurses and the community in retrieving criticial health services from the number crunchers and their political masters.

Hervey Bay rally, February 2014.

Wide Bay nurses and midwives secure intensive care specialists Nurses and midwives have been instrumental in forcing the Newman government to back down on its plan to remove intensive care specialists from Hervey Bay Hospital.

Anger spread like wildfire through Wide Bay after the state government announced it would not maintain intensive care specialist positions at the hospital.

The decision came even though local intensive care specialists had shown they save lives, prevent unnecessary delays, provide a metropolitan standard of care, and stop the unnecessary transfer of patients out of the region.

Without critical local life-saving support, Wide Bay residents requiring intensive care would have been forced to risk relocating to Brisbane.

Locals up in arms The local reaction was immediate and vocal.

Around 70 angry Wide Bay residents— including nurses and midwives—held a protest rally outside Hervey Bay Hospital in late February, calling on local LNP MPs Ted Sorensen (Member for Hervey Bay) and Anne Maddern (Member for Maryborough) to ask their government to stop the reduction in service.

About 500 locals signed a petition asking LNP politicians to stand up for the health

needs of their local communities and intervene.

Another rally was held in early March outside the Maryborough Senior Citizen’s Centre to coincide with a visit from Health Minister Lawrence Springborg.

The QNU called on the minister to upgrade the Hervey Bay ICU to level 5 to ensure the intensive care specialists could remain.

Just hours after a third rally outside Hervey Bay Hospital in late March, the state government announced it would appoint two new permanent, full-time intensive care specialists to the hospital.

The intensive care unit will also become a nurse training centre. This means local nurses will no longer need to travel to Brisbane to receive training.

Great outcome!

This is another great outcome for all parties. Wide Bay residents have locked in the intensive care specialists they need and deserve, while local nurses and midwives have shown once again how powerful we are when we take a stand together.

The Newman government’s backflip on Hervey Bay Hospital’s ICU couldn’t have happened without a loud and strong grassroots campaign from local nurses and midwives.

Congratulations Wide Bay!

Rally for Biala, March 2013.

10 | TQN | APRIL 2014

www.qnu.org.au

NEWS

Newman government puts doctors in the crosshairs Queensland doctors are feeling the sting of the LNP government’s assault on the working rights of Queenslanders.

At the time of going to print, hundreds of Queensland doctors are threatening to walk away from Queensland Health after the Newman government unveiled plans to force them onto individual work contracts.

The Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (ASMOF), which represents more than 3000 Queensland specialists,

says the new contracts are worse than John Howards’ WorkChoices.

ASMOF President Tony Sara says doctors could lose a third of their wages if they are pushed onto contracts.

Doctors would also be at risk of arbitrary dismissal without access to a dispute resolution process, and employers would be entitled to change doctors’ workplace conditions without discussion or negotiation with medical staff.

This kind of attack on jobs, conditions and access to the independent umpire is of course something nurses and midwives have been resisting for more than 18 months.

Thousands of nurses and midwives across Queensland have seen working conditions destroyed, workloads increased and capacity to provide quality patient care undermined as the government cut jobs and services from Queensland Health.

The government is now applying to doctors the same weasel words of “flexible working arrangements” and “modernisation” they applied to nursing jobs and health services.

The doctors have threatened to walk out of Queensland Health rather than sign the new contracts, saying they will go into private practice, head interstate or go overseas.

The Newman government has pushed on heedless of warnings from within its own ranks, determined to ram through individual contracts even if it means losing hundreds of doctors from the public sector.

The government’s promise to replace a mass exodus of doctors with foreign medicos has been dismissed as unrealistic. The result will be privatisation by stealth.

Women and babies worst hit by two years of LNP rule Women, babies and children will be some of the worst hit by the cost cutting measures introduced since the Newman Government was elected two years ago.

QNU Secretary Beth Mohle said scores of women’s and child health services had been axed since Premier Newman took the helm.

Of the more than 3400 hospital jobs culled, more than 1200 FTE nursing and midwifery jobs have been cut. 985 or almost one third were in the Metro North region which includes the Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital.

A further 84 jobs including nursing positions were cut at Children’s Health Queensland which includes the Royal Children’s Hospital Brisbane. www.qnu.org.au

Additional health cuts have been made to almost every region in the state, with communities from Cape York to Coolangatta suffering.

“The LNP have cut everything from services for neonatal or sick or premature babies, to intensive care, neurology, emergency, heart and lung transplant services and many other important facilities.

The cuts have also severely impacted aged and indigenous health care.

Concerned that information provided by the State Government has understated the extent of health related cuts, the QNU has lodged Right to Information (RTI) requests seeking accurate and complete statistics on job cuts.

“The figures we have received so far through our RTI requests were not handed over voluntarily and the numbers for eight Hospital and Health Services are still outstanding—so sadly these figures are conservative at best,” Beth said.

“We will continue to seek the complete statistics and we urge Queenslanders to join us in demanding full disclosure on cuts in their regions.”

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 11

NEWS

Some say teenagers in the fast food or retail industries don’t deserve penalty rates because they have to work outside school hours.

But this doesn’t mean they don’t deserve compensation.

Like us, they have lives outside work— lives shared with people who do work 9-5, and whose only time to spend together is on evenings and weekends.

Penalty rates are about fairness— regardless of the size of the employer’s business.

Working outside 9-5 working hours has a social impact as well as an economic one.

The real danger: insecure work

Workforce ‘flexibility’ means insecure work Beware the federal employment minister in his push to remove penalty rates in favour of ‘flexibility’.

Flexibility has long been the catchcry of employers and conservative governments, who argue penalty rate payments for working outside traditional 9-5 hours are no longer needed to persuade people to work difficult, unsocial hours.

They claim penalty rates should be removed because changes in the workforce mean more people find it convenient to work at night or on weekends.

Apparently, living in a globalised 24/7 economy means penalty payments are out-dated and more employees are available to work difficult hours.

But the payment of penalty rates has never been about the availability of employees.

It is compensation for missing out on the important moments in our loved ones’ lives, for having to reorganise and reschedule our lives—and our families’ lives—to fit in with working outside 9-5 hours, and for working through fatigue on the graveyard shift.

12 | TQN | APRIL 2014

Reduction or withdrawal of penalty rates encourages employers to make even more use of insecure work—such as casual work.

With 40% of employed Australians in insecure work, it is one of the major problems facing the Australian workforce today, creating a new divide between those who are in full or part-time permanent employment and those who work on the periphery.

People need permanent work with a regular income to plan their lives. But people in casual or contract work don’t have that guarantee.

Many do not know the hours they will be required to work from week to week, often juggle multiple jobs, and are frequently in low-paid positions in restaurants, catering or retail.

Changes to penalty rates will greatly increase the ability of employers to require employees to work at times that suit the employer, not the employees who may have caring responsibilities.

‘Flexibility’ cannot be at the expense of the personal lives and incomes of employees.

Once employers have withdrawn penalty rates from retail and hospitality, there will be a concerted campaign to remove them from other sectors.

Health will be one such area. Nurses and midwives will be vulnerable to demands for further cost-cutting by reducing or removing penalty rates.

It is vital we keep penalty rates to protect the quality of life for working Australians.

Make no mistake. Once penalties have gone, they will be gone for good.

Workloads: fatigue looming for theatre nurses at Prince Charles Excessive additional hours and fatigue are emerging as a key issue for theatre nurses at Prince Charles Hospital as long-established rostering practices are changed to save money.

Nurses at Prince Charles theatres are being recalled for excessive additional hours as the hospital struggles to cope with 24 hour emergency and heart/lung transplants on a Monday-Friday roster.

Theatre nurses have reported being forced to take sick leave or annual leave if they are too tired to work an afternoon shift after working up to and over 15 hours the previous day, then being recalled to work overnight.

Nurses have also reported being rostered on call on their days off, and therefore often have to work up to 12 days straight, often in shifts over 15 hours long.

Historically Prince Charles has used paid fatigue leave to manage fatigue levels for theatre nurses who have been consistently recalled to work.

Now, Prince Charles management has decided fatigue leave is too expensive.

Recall levels have not changed but nurses have lost a major mechanism for managing the inevitable fatigue.

The staffing shortages mean nurses are on call a lot. Theatre nurses at Prince Charles have shown from past practice they can cope with the long hours so long as they receive assistance in managing their fatigue.

The QNU fears the changes may lead to high burn out rates among theatre nurses.

This will only increase the burden on the remaining nurses.

The problem could be solved with the introduction of a 24-hour theatre roster, like every other major hospital in Brisbane.

Management at the Prince Charles are refusing to implement this suggestion, claiming the activity data does not support a 24-hour roster.

However, when the QNU asked for a copy of the activity data, Prince Charles management refused to deliver. www.qnu.org.au

NEWS

After ongoing difficulty trying to resolve the new rostering practices, the QNU obtained assistance from the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission.

During the meeting in the commission, both the QNU and Prince Charles management agreed the concerns of nursing staff should be addressed through local meetings.

Local meetings have now commenced.

This is the first hint of progress in this long running grievance.

The QNU will continue to provide the necessary support to our TPCH nurses until we achieve a roster system that is fair and has due regard for the health and safety of nurses.

It’s our special day, so let’s celebrate it!

You’re braver than you believe. Stronger than you seem.

And smarter than you think.

– Christopher Robin in Pooh’s Grand Adventure.

It’s not often nurses and midwives get to pause and take stock of the fantastic job they do every day—frankly they’re usually too busy getting on with the business of looking after their patients.

But International Day of the Midwife on 5 May and International Nurses Day on 12 May are the perfect opportunity to pause, breathe, and reflect.

QNU Secretary Beth Mohle said it’s all too easy to get tied up with the demands of day-to-day work, and forget what an enormously important job nurses and midwives do.

“Nurses and midwives are the heart of the health system—we keep patients safe, we save lives, we protect the vulnerable, we give people hope and comfort, and we help people understand what’s happening to them,” she said.

“We may not realise it while we’re doing it, but that’s a really powerful thing.”

With many workplaces still reeling from job and service cuts, Beth said the past year had been particularly challenging, but nurses and midwives could be proud of their achievements.

“We have seen some outstanding examples of nurses and midwives standing tall in this environment and standing up for their rights and the rights of their patients,” she said.

“From Logan midwives speaking out on cuts to community midwifery services, to ARCBS nurses striving to protect Australia’s blood supply, from www.qnu.org.au

Mater nurses and midwives speaking out against disgraceful management and intimidating behaviour, to Embracia aged care nurses demanding fair wages and award conditions, and Biala nurses going in to bat for their HIV patients—it’s about acting together with courage, determination and strength.”

“Sometimes we forget we have the power, both individually and together, to stand up for our patients, demand safer workplaces, call out bad management and unsafe practices, and be the empowered nurses and midwives our patients, communities and colleagues need us to be.”

“So over 5-12 May this year, I encourage nurses and midwives around the state to remember their strength and remind each other just what we can do when we tap into nurse and midwife power.”

5 MAY INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE MIDWIFE 12 MAY INTERNATIONAL NURSES DAY APRIL 2014 | TQN | 13

NEWS

MARCH IN MAY for Labour Day Union members around the state will take to the streets on the first weekend in May to celebrate Labour Day 2014.

Despite the LNP’s efforts to meddle with Queensland history by pushing Labour Day back into October, Queensland unions will be out in number celebrating worker’s rights.

Labour Day in Queensland has been held in May since it began more than 160 years ago and we will continue this proud tradition long after the government of the day is gone.

Labour Day commemorates the men and women who have struggled and succeeded to allow workers around the world to have fairer and better working conditions.

In the current political environment, joining together to remember the hard won battles for good working conditions, job security, worker safety and a fair wage, seems entirely appropriate and reminds us all that we need to be vigilant and united to protect them.

So join your fellow workers for Labour Day this May.

Some of the events scheduled so far include:        

Brisbane: Sunday 4 May. 9.30am for a 10am start.

Bundaberg: Saturday 3 May. From 10.30am.

Emu Park: Sunday 4 May. From 11am.

Gold Coast: Saturday, 3 May. From 1pm.

Ipswich: Saturday 3 May. From 9.30am.

Rockhampton: Sunday 4 May from 9am.

Toowoomba: Saturday 3 May. From 10am.

Townsville: Sunday 4 May. From 10am.

Visit www.qnu.org.au/labourday2014 for more details.

This page is constantly being updated as new arrangements are confirmed.

14 | TQN | APRIL 2014

Stuck in limbo: state government gives nurses at Ashworth and Gannett no options Nurses at Ashworth House and Gannett at Eventide remain in limbo as the state government refuses to confirm whether their positions will be abolished.

The government has already closed and sold a number of publiclyowned aged care facilities as it moves out of the aged care industry.

The government has a responsibility to ensure residents have satisfactory and dignified lives. It also has a responsibility to ensure staff at these facilities, including nurses, have a clear indication of their futures and their prospects.

This continued uncertainty for residents and staff is causing significant stress.

Ashworth nurses in the dark The state government refuses to say what will happen to nurses at the Ashworth House facility.

The government has confirmed it will close the facility, and some nurses have already accepted voluntary redundancies.

Many of those remaining have not yet been offered VRs, and are still waiting to hear what will happen to their jobs when the facility closes.

The government is forcing these nurses to work in limbo, with no realistic plan for how Ashworth will deal with natural attrition or the eventuality of bed numbers falling below ten.

The state government has not announced if the last remaining residents will be permitted to stay at Ashworth for the duration of their natural lives, or if they will be relocated elsewhere.

Until the state government makes an announcement, both residents and nurses remain unclear about their futures.

Gannett nurses get silent treatment The state government also refuses to say what will happen to the Gannett facility.

The QNU has repeatedly asked the state government about the future of Gannett and the nurses who work there, and has continually received the response that ‘no decision has been made’.

The government has told residents at Gannett they can stay at the facility until the end of their natural life. This means some nurses will be needed at the facility in the foreseeable future.

However, the number of nurses has not been clarified. None of the nurses remaining at Gannett have been offered voluntary redundancies.

Gannett is now accumulating excess nursing staff as beds close. The excess nurses are being deployed to unfamiliar areas like mental health and acquired brain injury.

The government needs to come clean about its plans for Gannett.

Will it close the facility? Will they move another service into the building? Or will they sell the entire service off to a private bidder?

The government’s treatment of residents and nurses at Ashworth and Gannett has been nothing short of shameful.

At Yaralla Place nurses that have been re-employed are now on much lower rates of pay than when they were employed there by Queensland Health. In addition their is growing concern that staffing numbers do not match those that were operating under Queensland Health. www.qnu.org.au

NEWS

Logan Hospital midwives hold Executive to account

BY QNU COUNCILLOR KAREN SHEPHERD

In December 2013, midwives at Logan inadvertently received a confidential Logan Executive Ministerial briefing note which claimed that planned service changes in the Logan district were “minor”.

Following a unanimous decision by the midwives that the only option was to respond to this outrageous inaccurate document, we provided Health Minister Lawrence Springborg with a comprehensive 21-page response detailing the facts about Logan Midwifery Services.

Eight weeks after submitting our response, we received a template reply from the minister’s office which did not address our concerns in any meaningful manner.

However we believe this action, coupled with our community rallies and petition, resulted in the Executive engaging in dialogue with the midwives to consult about changes to midwifery services.

Initially, Logan Executive stonewalled any meaningful communication with the midwives regarding cuts to services and organisational changes to midwifery.

However, our members’ campaign— involving direct correspondence, community rallies, and professional communication—has achieved the return of the professional midwifery voice at the local level at Logan.

The midwives have ensured Logan Executive have been held to account, and have insisted robust systems and processes apply in accordance with legislative requirements.

We now have in place:  the ability to escalate concerns and issues  a more “open door” mechanism with Executive  monthly Midwifery/Obstetrics and Gynaecology Executive Forums and newsletters  and six monthly stakeholders forums.

Much to the dismay of management, the midwives and nurses were absolutely insistent during this process they wanted their peak professional and industrial body the QNU to represent them. www.qnu.org.au

Logan rally, December 2013.

We are achieving our agenda—ensuring safe, competent, and quality care for women and babies, while ensuring Logan Hospital midwives and nurses continue to meet their professional obligations and responsibilities, to maintain their registration with the NMBA.

Super’s exposure to Transfield – and mandatory detention centres In 2012, the QNU published an article recommending nurses and midwives take a closer look at where their superannuation funds were investing.

The recommendation came after a report by the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors showed just 17% of the 195 firms listed on the Australian Stock Exchange had labour and human rights policies.

In addition to the ethical issues around investing in exploitative or abusive behaviour, such investments may expose individuals’ funds through inadequate risk management policies.

Earlier this year, it became clear many—if not most—Australian superannuation companies were investing in Transfield Services Ltd, the company which recently assumed responsibility for managing the controversial Manus Island and Nauru refugee detention centres.

When QNU contacted HESTA to ask about their investment in Transfield

Services, HESTA officials said they did not consider their connection to Transfield Services to be unethical according to the fund’s appropriate investment criteria.

HESTA is one of the few super funds which has specifically developed an Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policy for investments which includes criteria around labour rights.

For members who may wish to take an even stricter approach to ethical investment, HESTA also offers members a socially responsible investment option called Eco Pool.

HESTA’s Eco Pool investment option (and a number of other investment options) has no exposure to Transfield Services.

So just what does all this mean for me and my super?

Clearly many superannuation funds are investing in Transfield.

It is up to individuals to decide whether this is ethical, and whether they are comfortable with having their superannuation invested in a company which profits from managing offshore mandatory detention centres.

It is also up to individuals to decide whether and how they wish to express their view on this.

QNU Secretary Beth Mohle reminded members they can contact their superannuation funds and request a copy of their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies, including polices around labour and human rights.

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 15

NEWS

The QNU is in your corner The QNU’s member servicing team had a record year in 2013, handling more than 2200 requests for representation and nearly 16,000 phone enquiries.

We also recovered more than $1.2 million in unpaid benefits for members.

All in all that’s thousands of nurses and midwives, across all pay grades, making the most of their QNU membership to seek help for their work-related professional, industrial and legal issues.

“It’s hugely satisfying to know we have helped so many nurses and midwives at times that are quite often stressful or upsetting,” QNU Secretary Beth Mohle said.

“Members should always remember: whatever your work-related issue is, you don’t have to go it alone.”

“The QNU is here to support you and work with you to get the best possible outcome.”

For example, last year the QNU servicing team worked with Hall Payne Lawyers to help a regional member who was reported to AHPRA for allegedly being rude and not providing adequate care to a maternity patient.

With the lawyers’ help, the member drafted an official response.

It turned out the nurse had not even been working on one of the days in question.

Not surprisingly the NMBA decided to take no further action.

A breakdown of last year’s cases presents an interesting picture, with requests for representation increasing across all sectors.

Requests covered everything from workers’ compensation to disciplinary hearings to unpaid wages.

16 | TQN | APRIL 2014

The majority of requests from nurses and midwives include matters such as:

DISCIPLINE

AHPRA

For allegations such as incomplete documentation, medication errors, breaches of policies and regulations, interpersonal conduct, and excessive use of force/roughness in provision of care.

Including matters of competence, conduct, health and wellbeing, immediate action, recency of practice, registration, and HQCC complaints.

UNFAIR DISMISSAL

Including Coronial Inquiries, complaint investigations, show cause matters, police investigations, and professional practice issues.

Including forced resignations, unlawful terminations, discrimination and freedom of association, and adverse action cases.

GRIEVANCES For issues such as workplace conflict, bullying and harassment, and discrimination.

INDUSTRIAL ISSUES Including underpayment of wages and entitlements, rostering, professional development, part-time work following maternity leave, and hours of work.

WORKERS’ COMPENSATION Including help with making a claim, appeals and common law rights, and assistance with return-to-work plans.

CONTRACTS Performing work outside skill set and scope of practice, unfair changes, reasonable hours, and overtime rights.

STATEMENTS

OTHER Including superannuation, performance, appeals, implementation of reasonable adjustment policy, ill health retirement, and workplace health and safety.

The QNU also represented members at hundreds of workplace meetings and in various tribunals including the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission, Fair Work Commission, QCAT, the Public Service Commission of Queensland, and Coronial Inquests.

Phew! Being a nurse or midwife can be exhausting—not just the demands of day-to-day work, but also the legal and registration requirements.

It’s all part of being a professional— and so is knowing who you can call on for help when you need it.

Just remember: don’t go it alone.

The QNU has got your back.

www.qnu.org.au

NEWS

Vale Kath Nelson, TSU Secretary Queensland lost one of its youngest, and brightest, shining lights of the union movement when The Services Union’s Secretary Kathrine Nelson passed away in mid-March.

Kath was 43 years old and for the last ten months battled leukaemia. The QNU received a card from Kath praising the care she was receiving from nurses.

Kath was an accomplished industrial relations professional who was widely respected both in the union movement and by representatives of employers and the government.

She was a pivotal player in many major wins for Queensland workers including the historic Social and Community Services Pay Equity Case in Queensland in 2008.

Vale Barbara Hayes, JCU Professor of Nursing

This case delivered a finding which confirmed Queensland social and community workers performed work which was undervalued because of gender, and laid the essential groundwork for the federal pay equity case which was completed in 2012.

Kath was instrumental in obtaining guarantees from the Gillard Government to fund the pay equity increases.

Kath was compassionate and believed in a fair go for all. She incorporated these values into everything she did.

She was much loved by those who worked with her, was an inspiring mentor, and possessed a marvellous sense of humour and a quick wit.

She will be missed by all in the labour movement.

Nursing and midwifery lost one of its great educators in March, when Professor Barbara Hayes OAM passed away.

Barbara was Foundation Professor of Nursing Sciences at James Cook University in Townsville, and was also Head of the Nursing Sciences Department.

During her career, Barbara taught literally thousands of nurses, supervised hundreds of postdoctoral students from all over the world, and was responsible for some of nursing and midwifery’s best research.

ARE YOUR DETAILS UP-TO-DATE? Have you recently changed your home address, email address or workplace, been promoted or changed your hours of work?

It is vital your details at the QNU are current so we can keep you informed and up-to-date on the latest nursing and midwifery news.

Visit https://member.qnu.org.au to update your details online. www.qnu.org.au

In 2009 she received the Medal of the Order of Australia for her services to education.

Barbara was hugely supportive of her colleagues and was well-known for her mentorship and promotion of junior academics.

Her sense of humour, her ability to understand alternative views, and her deep compassion and principles of social justice made her a wonderful colleague and friend to many.

Barbara will be very much missed by nurses and midwives everywhere.

ROVMFHBM Plus

experience on your side wills and estate matters criminal law immigration law Phone

family law

property law personal injury law

3099 3210 or 1800 177 273 (toll free for outside of Brisbane)

www.qnu.org.au/legalplus APRIL 2014 | TQN | 17

NEWS

A new report on climate change shows the global community is underprepared for climate change A report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released earlier this month, shows the world’s failure to act on climate change is already having a serious effect on health.

Analysing the report, Australia’s Climate and Health Alliance (CAHA), said children are being hurt the most with crop failures and weather related disasters having a big impact on mortality, development and growth.

“Extreme weather is having a devastating toll, with hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries from heat events, storms, fires, and floods, and subsequent displacement, hunger and disease,” CAHA president and researcher Dr Liz Hanna said.

“While those in developing nations are hit hardest, and take longer to recover, people in developed countries like Australia are also vulnerable to the extreme weather events that are becoming more frequent and more severe as a result of climate change.”

The IPCC report also reveals that our failure to reduce emissions so far means we may no longer be able to limit global warming to the target of just 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures.

“This means we need to act at a global level, a national level, at state and community level and as individuals. We must do all we can to cut emissions and urge others to do so if we are to avoid putting health at greater risk,” Dr Hanna said.

“Cutting emissions will bring many immediate benefits for public health, as well as help limit climate change in the longer term. We can afford to do it but we cannot afford to wait.”

18 | TQN | APRIL 2014

What can you do?

Keep tabs and reduce your own emissions output.

There are heaps of online resources including: www.whatsmycarbonfootprint.com Follow CAHA: @healthy_climate @climateandhealthalliance Tap into and share the resources at: www.climasphere.org You’ll also find the IPCC report there.

NSW Liberal government pushes ahead with privatisation of new hospital The privatisation push is running hot in New South Wales, where Liberal Premier Barry O’Farrell has insisted on the sale of Emergency Department services at the new Northern Beaches Hospital.

This means it may be possible for people who can afford it to ‘buy their way up the queue’ for access to emergency health services.

Nurses and midwives working at the new hospital have also received contradictory information about their wages and working arrangements.

While the NSW health minister said nurses’ and midwives’ wages and working arrangements were guaranteed for five years, the Local Health District later said the guarantee was only for two years.

Arrangements for the new hospital are ‘commercial in confidence’, so issues around nurse-to-patient ratios, models of care, and whether public patients in ED will be treated the same as private patients are all being kept secret.

The New South Wales Nursing and Midwifery Association is calling on the NSW government to overturn this decision and make health facilities on the Northern Beaches fully public.

The proposed privatisation of Northern Beaches Hospital is similar to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital (SCUH) in Queensland.

SCUH had been promised as a public hospital, but after being elected the Newman government proposed to privatise clinical and other services.

After a strong, grassroots campaign to keep clinical services in public hands, the Newman government was forced to backflip.

Let’s hope the groundswell of opposition to the sale of Northern Beaches Hospital can achieve a similar result in NSW. When will governments get the message that people don’t want public health services sold to private companies? www.qnu.org.au

NEWS

Spotlight on Ansell The QNU has joined a chorus of condemnation toward Australian multinational rubber manufacturer Ansell for its appalling treatment of employees in Sri Lanka.

Nearly 300 workers were sacked in October when they went on strike in support of 11 colleagues who were stood down without just cause.

Ansell, which manufactures condoms and medical gloves, is waging a blatant victimisation campaign against members of the Free Trade Zone and General Services Employee Union (FTZGSEU).

The company refuses to recognise the union or to respect collective bargaining, forces workers to urinate at their work stations to maintain fast production, then blames the union for ensuing employee unrest.

According to the FTZGSEU’s international affiliate IndustriALL, the Ansell workforce is paid poverty wages and almost all branch union office bearers have been summarily dismissed.

Union branch president Athula Kamal was summarily fired in 2013 after telling police Ansell management were involved in an assault on him by two men on a motorbike.

www.qnu.org.au

Ansell have refused to reinstate Mr Kamal despite being ordered to do so by the Sri Lankan labour commissioner.

In October last year, 294 workers in the Biyagama Free Trade Zone were sacked after going out on strike in support of their colleagues.

The strike, now in its fourth month, is the longest running strike in Sri Lanka and many striking workers are struggling to make ends meet.

Lower courts have ruled in favour of reinstatement of the fired workers, but the Supreme Court earlier this year suspended the judgment and instructed Ansell to negotiate a settlement with the union.

Ansell has continued to ignore all directives and recently brought in nonunion labour to break the will of the striking workers.

In February the Sri Lankan labour ministry filed charges against the company for unfair labour practices.

Ansell still refuses to budge.

IndustriALL has launched an international campaign demanding Ansell reinstate the 294 workers and has urged the Sri Lankan government to scale back Ansell’s tax concessions.

IndustriALL also lodged a complaint against the company with the Organisation for Economic Coordination and Development (OECD).

About 11,000 protest emails have been sent to Ansell, including from the QNU and fellow Global Nurses United founding member, National Nurses United (USA).

Sri Lanka’s Board of Investment has refused Ansell’s request for an extension of tax concessions.

Ansell has a long history of appalling labour relations in Sri Lanka.

In 1994, thousands of Ansell workers protested against the company’s antiunion stance. One employee was shot dead when police fired on the demonstrators.

How you can support Sri Lankan workers: IndustriALL would love to see Australian health facilities boycott Ansell gloves until the dispute is resolved. You can help by asking your employer to change glove supplier and send a letter or email to Ansell notifying them of the reason for the boycott If a boycott is not possible, you or your employer can still write and express your views.

Letters/emails can be directed to: Frank Mantero Vice President, Global Branding, Corporate Communications and Creative Services Ansell Corporate Offices 111 Wood Avenue South Iselin, NJ 08830 Email: frank.mantero@ansell.com FTZGSEU also needs your financial support. Over 80% of the strikers have children. The union has set up a strike fund into which you can transfer financial support.

Contact press@industrial-union.org for details.

For more information visit: www.industriall-union.org/scabmade-medical-gloves-sickenansell-workers-in-sri-lanka APRIL 2014 | TQN | 19

NEWS

ARCBS nurses secure a new agreement After a ten month campaign, Australian Red Cross Blood Service nurses have finally secured a new enterprise agreement.

ARCBS management originally went to the table with an agreement that offered minimal wage increases, no improvements to poor rostering practices, and threatened to remove the hardship allowance for working on donor mobile units.

It just wasn’t good enough, and ARCBS nurses were determined to stand up for a better deal knowing the health of their patients, the quality of Australia’s blood supply, and the capacity of the Red Cross to retain and recruit nurses were all at risk.

ARCBS nurses are geographically dispersed, which presented particular challenges.

How do you organise a co-ordinated campaign when you and your colleagues are spread from Cairns to the Gold Coast?

It’s all about good communication.

With QNU assistance, hundreds of ARCBS nurses ran a fantastic campaign which included stop work meetings, rallies, petitions, and a donor education campaign as part of protected industrial action.

By early this year ARCBS management and nurses had agreed to a 3% per year pay rise and a five hour minimum shift, and—with the assistance of the Fair Work Commission—worked together to resolve the last few outstanding issues for a new enterprise agreement.

The new agreement retains the hardship allowance for working in a donor mobile unit, retains the Fair Work Commission as the independent arbiter for disputes and increases the minimum shift length to five hours from four.

It also prohibits broken or split shifts and gives an additional week of leave for staff who work more than 25 weekend shifts in a year.

This is a good outcome under difficult circumstances and ARCBS nurses did a great job defending their workplace conditions and protecting Australia’s blood supply.

Congratulations ARCBS nurses!

20 | TQN | APRIL 2014

www.qnu.org.au

NEWS

Fair Work Commission dismisses Blue Care appeal on QNU win The QNU has secured another important legal victory in the campaign to ensure Blue Care employees who assist with nursing work are recognised and paid appropriately.

As reported in February 2014 tqn, the QNU was recently successful in getting a seat at the negotiating table to represent QNU members who would be covered by the new Care and Support Workers Agreement.

Blue Care—supported by the Australian Workers Union who was a bargaining representative for non-nursing staff—appealed the decision, arguing the QNU should not be included as a bargaining representative because “the Personal Support Assistant in the proposed Care and Support Agreement does not fall within the ‘assistants-innursing’ calling within the meaning of the QNU’s eligibility rules”.

However, the Fair Work Commission found Blue Care’s proposal provided “such flexibility that the work that will be performed under the Care and Support Agreement has the capacity to extend to that of an assistant-in-nursing as defined earlier and covered by the QNU eligibility rules”.

In other words, Blue Care’s proposed new Care and Support Agreement intended for workers such as kitchen or laundry staff includes some tasks that could be considered nursing or caring tasks—which means the QNU has a right to be involved.

Blue Care had also tried to exclude the QNU on grounds the QNU had no intention of negotiating an agreement, but instead intended to change the scope of the agreement.

However, the Fair Work Commission upheld the original decision that the scope of the agreement can be the subject of negotiations.

This decision by a full bench of the FWC strongly supports the www.qnu.org.au

QNU’s longstanding position that employees who assist an RN or EN to carry out nursing work should be classified as AINs.

New proposal out to ballot Meanwhile, Blue Care’s proposed new agreement has gone out to a ballot of employees and been voted up.

The new agreement has cleaners, kitchen workers and laundry assistants performing direct care work.

For example, the tasks of a hospitality officer at level 2 (which includes the above employees) includes: “Contribute to the development of client care plans as required including by informing on client’s personal preferences in receiving care and support” and “assist with activities of daily living including mobility, eating and drinking as required”.

If the agreement is approved by the Fair Work Commission, employees could be performing AIN work and getting paid as little as $19.39 an hour.

An AIN (with a certificate III) would earn a minimum of $23.00 an hour.

This is simply a blatant attempt by Blue Care to save money by pushing nursing care work down to the lowest paid employees.

It’s not fair to these employees, and it’s not fair to AINs who are being replaced by the lower paid workers.

The QNU will strongly oppose the approval of the Care and Support Agreement in its current form.

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 21

NEWS

QNU to launch class action on unpaid wages The QNU is investigating a class action after many private sector nurses and midwives indicated they were owed payment for public holidays, or were being told they must take annual leave on a public holiday.

Australians who work full-time, Monday to Friday, generally get 10 paid public holidays per year.

Nurses and midwives should also get no fewer than 10 paid public holidays per year. After all, this is the requirement under the National Employment Standards which applies to nurses and midwives employed in the private sector.

Under the NES, nurses and midwives who do not work on a public holiday must still be paid for their ordinary hours for that day.

In fact, they must be paid even if their enterprise agreement only provides three paid public holidays per year. Some nurses and midwives have been told payment depends on whether they are on ‘Option A’ or ‘Option B’ in the enterprise agreement. This is not true.

If a nurse or midwife does not work on a public holiday, they are entitled to an ordinary day’s pay.

‘Ordinary’ hours ‘Ordinary’ hours of work are hours for which you receive your ordinary, base rate of pay.

Ordinary hours can occur on any day of the week (unless limited to particular days of the week by agreement with the

UNDER THE NES, NURSES AND MIDWIVES WHO DO NOT WORK ON A PUBLIC HOLIDAY MUST STILL BE PAID FOR THEIR ORDINARY HOURS FOR THAT DAY. 22 | TQN | APRIL 2014

employer), and do not include overtime or time on call.

A nurse or midwife is entitled to be paid for a public holiday which falls on a day which would be ordinary hours had they worked on it.

In a roster period which contains one public holiday, a nurse or midwife should work one less ordinary shift than usual and get the same base rate of pay.

Nurses and midwives are entitled to have the hours for a public holiday credited toward the maximum ordinary hours of work in a week.

If a nurse or midwife did not work one less ‘ordinary’ shift in a public holiday fortnight, they must be paid in that fortnight for one more shift than usual.

If the hours worked in the fortnight plus the hours credited for the public holiday exceed 76 hours, a nurse or midwife is entitled to overtime rates for the hours in excess of 76.

Class action to commence soon Last December the QNU sent a survey to private sector members, asking whether they were receiving their public holiday entitlements.

590 members have responded so far.

565 indicated they have not been paid for public holidays when they should have been. 74 have volunteered to be QNU workplace contacts.

This is a great result. Members spreading accurate information to colleagues is the best way to ensure nurses and midwives are not ripped off.

QNU members at Ramsay’s John Flynn Hospital provided the most survey responses, and have been very active around the issue. Great work John Flynn Hospital nurses and midwives!

As a result, the initial focus of the campaign is on John Flynn and this is why we conducted our first eduction session near John Flynn on 4 March.

The QNU will now obtain the employment records of consenting nurses and midwives, and examine them with a view to class action claims for anybody who was not paid for public holidays not worked since 1 January 2010.

Watch this space for developments. www.qnu.org.au

NEWS

Mater Public nurses and midwives take protected industrial action The ongoing tension between Mater management and Mater nurses and midwives escalated dramatically in March, with public and legal confrontations.

Nurses and midwives from Mater Public Hospital are now taking protected industrial action, despite Mater management trying to stop them with expensive legal challenges.

Mater management has also put out a third enterprise agreement offer—and guess what? It is still a substandard offer.

Surprise, surprise.

After 15 months of negotiations and Mater’s ongoing refusal to pass on the taxpayer funding for wage increases, nurses and midwives voted overwhelmingly to take industrial action.

83% of participants voted YES for the action.

Mater forks out the big bucks on lawyers—and still loses Mater’s attempt to prevent industrial action using expensive lawyers fizzled badly.

Mater has consistently sought to prevent information reaching the public about what it is doing to its nurses and midwives.

This fear of public discussion went to a whole new level in March, when Mater management engaged lawyers from Ashurst Australia to stop planned industrial action.

Ashurst is the same firm that represented Qantas during the 2011 dispute which resulted in CEO Alan Joyce locking out workers and grounding the Qantas fleet.

Legal fees related to blocking industrial action are believed to be in the six figures—money which could have gone a long way toward paying nurses and midwives the back pay and wage increases they are owed.

And the result? The Fair Work Commission dismissed Mater’s challenge.

What a waste of time and money. Mater could have easily achieved a far better outcome simply by passing the taxpayer funding on to nurses and midwives.

“I have never experienced anything like Mater management’s mistreatment of their staff,” QNU Secretary Beth Mohle said.

“Mater Public nurses and midwives have not received a pay increase for three years and this constitutes financial harassment in our view.

“This has now escalated to intimidation via legal action, with top end of town barristers being flown in from Sydney to run Mater management’s case.”

Mater still refuses to pass taxpayer money on Mater management has received and withheld millions of dollars for nurse and midwife pay increases.

It has now been three years since Mater nurses and midwives received a wage increase. They are now 9% behind their colleagues working in Queensland Health, even though they do the same work.

Mater continues to offer a 2.5% wage increase only in exchange for the ability to force redundancies and redeployments, and by reducing or removing working conditions including job security and long service leave.

Perhaps most importantly, Mater wants to remove the $1500 continuing professional development allowance.

This alone means many nurses and midwives would be worse off, as the $1500 is more than the 2.5% increase to their yearly wage.

In blunt terms, Mater is proposing to give taxpayer funding with one hand, but take away allowance money to keep for itself with the other.

At time of printing, the third substandard offer is out for ballot.

The QNU will continue working towards reaching a fair agreement for nurses and midwives with Mater management.

GET SERIOUS MATER VALUE YOUR NURSES AND MIDWIVES QNU Secretary Beth Mohle (far right) Beth was accompanied by Mater nurses and midwives keen to show the media how frustrated they are by Mater’s efforts to gag them from standing up for a fair go.

www.qnu.org.au

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 23

FEATURE

What will happen to Medicare?

24 | TQN | APRIL 2014

www.qnu.org.au

FEATURE

Medicare is Australia’s public health care scheme.

Through Medicare, the Australian government pays for Australian citizens and permanent residents to access health care from medical practitioners, eligible midwives, nurse practitioners, allied health professionals, and public hospitals.

Recently, the federal government has suggested the rising cost of Medicare might be managed through a $6 payment for visits to GPs. What would this mean for Medicare? And what role do nurses and midwives have in this public debate anyway?

The QNU spoke to one of the architects of Medicare, Professor John Deeble. Professor Deeble worked with the Whitlam and Hawke/Keating governments on the introduction of Medibank and Medicare.

Why was there a need for Medicare?

Before Medicare, we had a mixture of charity, subsidised private insurance, and public hospital care.

Public hospitals were free in Queensland and Tasmania, but elsewhere that was limited to age pensioners, with different means-tested fees that were increasingly unfair to low income people.

Outside hospitals, there was a free scheme for Commonwealth pensioners but for everyone else the only cover was through private insurance.

Because doctors could charge whatever they wished, it covered less than 50% of cost and about one quarter of the population were uninsured.

Such cobbled-up arrangements could never survive the explosion of medical technology and public expectations that began in the 1960s.

We had to find something fairer and better—full public funding with an income-related Medicare Levy.

www.qnu.org.au

Do you think that some governments are opposed to public health care programs ?

Conservative governments generally favour private arrangements over public ones, though not exclusively.

Labor parties do the opposite.

However both are subject to one of the laws of politics: new programs can win new votes. Older programs can’t, but they have established bases.

The question is how the gains and losses resonate with the people the two groups represent, and whose support they are seeking to either attract or hold.

Ultimately, the community decides.

What is your opinion of the suggestion of a $6 co-payment to see a GP? Of itself, it is trivial, not enough to seriously change people’s behavior, although some would probably try to avoid it.

The projected savings are equally small—less than 2% of Medicare’s cost.

GP fees are not the main drivers of health cost increases, specialist procedures and diagnostic services are.

And it would be an administrative nightmare.

GPs don’t hold cash and they don’t want to run a collection system on behalf of the government from patients who cannot provide the right kind of Medicare concession card.

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 25

FEATURE

Trying to run a GP practice where patients hand over $6 in cash is totally unworkable.

Will people be barred from seeing a doctor until they establish their Medicare status and pay upfront? Of course not, but that is the only way a co-payment system could work.

There has been a lot of comment about people ‘needlessly’ seeing GPs when they aren’t really sick.

Well, that’s what GPs are for. They are the gatekeepers of the system.

People don’t visit for fun. They want advice, to find out what their symptoms mean and what they should do about them, including possible referral to specialists.

We should not deny them the ability to do that, or criticise them for wanting to do so.

Per person, Australian GP consultation rates are virtually identical to those in all the English-speaking countries.

26 | TQN | APRIL 2014

What do you think of our public health care system today?

By international standards, it works pretty well because it is both comprehensive and relatively accessible financially.

And that is important because Medicare is only part of the whole.

The Canadian system, for example, is very similar to ours, though with a somewhat different distribution of federal and provincial responsibilities.

Its costs are relatively well-controlled and its hospital and medical services are overwhelmingly public-funded.

However, it has one major omission—it has no equivalent of our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and drug costs are a major problem there.

But it still spends a higher proportion of its GDP on health than we do.

Australia is actually below the OECD averages in terms of both health care spending and the proportion met by

governments. So we have not been particularly generous.

Nearly 20% of our spending comes from people’s pockets—by international standards a fairly high level.

It’s not as high as in the US of course, but the US system is not something we should emulate.

So do you think the government will implement a $6 co-payment to Medicare?

I doubt it very much.

The projected savings are too small to warrant the problems it would cause.

I do think, though, that the government will try to shift as much of the administration of health care programs as possible to others.

It could then say “Yes, there is a problem, but it is your problem, not ours”.

Some could be shifted to the states, some perhaps to the private health funds.

www.qnu.org.au

FEATURE

IN SHORT: A dysfunctional relationship?

Medicare and the private system

You can see why. The post-war baby boom produced a large group of people now entering their later years.

On average, about 25% of a person’s lifetime health expenses are incurred in the 18 months before they die, whenever that is.

The government would dearly like to shift some or all of that cost.

But it cannot do much.

Denial of potentially life-preserving services on the basis that some of them will die anyway is something that developed and wealthy societies will simply not accept.

Neither governments nor doctors can predict which people will die.

The community expects that we will spend whatever it takes to keep people alive and make their quality of life as good as possible.

That is a social decision that has nothing to do with government policy.

The states don’t have the resources to meet the cost of this, and a reversion to private insurance would simply recreate the problems which produced the need for Medicare in the first place.

What will our health care system look like in 20 years time?

It will be much more specialised in terms of both our institutions and our professionals who are developing special skills that will have to be managed and coordinated. www.qnu.org.au

There will be problems but it is something we will have to do.

Nurses may well be the last ‘general’ health care workers, but they too will tend to specialise with the organisations in which they work—as in many cases they already do.

We will also see some changes in spending priorities.

People are living longer and there is now good evidence that as they age, extending life and improving the quality of that life become more important than accumulating material goods.

Demand for life preserving services will rise, not fall.

What role do nurses and midwives have in the public debate on our health care system?

They have an enormous advocacy role.

They are professionals with professional standards who work across the system and are in a unique position to see how it works and what people need.

Nurses and midwives have to emphasise again and again that they have their own stories.

In hospitals at least, they spend more time with patients than anyone else and know what the problems are.

They have to be listened to because in addition to their special understanding, they are not in it for business reasons.

They work for others.

Calls are growing for a fresh look at the funding arrangement between Medicare and the private health care system.

We all know health budgets are growing, and will continue to grow in the coming decades.

We all know we need to come up with a new plan to pay for the increased demand in health care services.

Some have suggested a $6 co-payment to visit a GP might help offset costs.

Health economists like Medicare architect Professor John Deeble have criticised these ideas as having a negligible impact on public health funding.

A number of opinion articles in mainstream and social media have suggested reviewing the Medicare contribution to private hospitals.

La Trobe University Economics Lecturer Peter Sivey has suggested cutting Medicare subsidies for diagnostic imaging. According to Sivey, spending on diagnostic imaging has increased by 38% in the last five years.

Melbourne University Research Fellow Terence Cheng estimated savings of around $500 million per year if the government removed the private health insurance rebate.

Both ideas deserve further discussion.

Any reform of Medicare must be meaningful and effective, and it is vital we include health professionals who focus on clinical and care outcomes—not just politicians who focus on trying to win votes.

Related articles: http://theconversation.com/wantmedicare-savings-stop-paying-forprivate-hospitals-23729 http://theconversation.com/whyits-time-to-remove-private-healthinsurance-rebates-16525 APRIL 2014 | TQN | 27

PROFESSIONAL

Speakers impress at 2014 Professional Conference A panel discussion spurred on by a few sticky hypothetical questions added a new dimension to the QNU’s Professional Practice and Ethics conference this year.

The conference, now in its third year, featured five guest speakers who made up an expert panel for a Q&A session after their individual presentations were completed.

Those presentations included Deakin University Professor Megan-Jane Johnstone’s presentation on organisational and leadership ethics and Sunshine Coast University Professor of Midwifery Dr Kathleen Fahy’s address on how nurses and midwives might be empowered to lead interdisciplinary teams.

Queensland Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer Dr Francis Hughes spoke on the important role the nursing executive plays in safe and quality care, while CEO of the Australian College of Nursing, Adjunct Professor Debra Thomas discussed how nursing and midwifery leadership is essential for quality care.

Margaret Vide

r

Margaret Vider’s (former Deputy Commissioner to the Bundaberg Hospital Commission of Inquiry) presentation really struck a chord with the audience as she spoke passionately about the proud profession of nursing and midwifery and the courage of standing up for patients— one audience member even confessed being moved to tears by the power of her lecture.

For the last session of the day QNU President Sally-Anne Jones posed a series of challenging questions to the panel about futuristic conundrums such as compulsory euthanasia and the idea of nurses being sidelined in a world of cheap, effective robot-delivered health care.

The QNU professional team is already considering ideas for the next conference.

The panel (left to right): QNU Secretary Beth Mohle, Professor Megan-Jane Johnstone, Dr Kathleen Fahy, Dr Francis Hughes and Margaret Vider.

28 | TQN | APRIL 2014

www.qnu.org.au

PROFESSIONAL

Get educated about your rights and entitlements

union training program COURSE

With a difficult political environment and pressure on nurses and midwives to do more with less there’s never been a better time to brush up on your workplace rights and entitlements.

The QNU’s education unit has a great range of courses scheduled this year to help nurses and midwives improve their knowledge of workplace awards and agreements, as part of a wide range of courses covering everything from workload management, scope of practice and safe workplaces to lobbying, campaigning and becoming more active in your union.

There are places still available for the Nurses and Midwives Unite! course in Brisbane on 30 April, in Toowoomba on 1 May and Cairns on 20 May, and the Public Sector’s How to fix your workloads today course in Brisbane on 15 May and Managing workloads through the BPF in Cairns on 21 May. The Nurses and Midwives unite! course examines the role of unions and the tactics often used against workers and their union representatives. The course includes some proactive planning exercises designed to help strengthen

nurses and midwives resolve and prepare them for union busting challenges.

On 1 and 2 May members can attend a great course in Brisbane called Someone should do something about that! which looks at how we can move members from complaining in the tearoom to actively dealing with workplace issues.

There are also courses on being a QNU Contact in the workplace (22 April in Brisbane, 14 May in Bundaberg) and an excellent course on knowing your entitlements in Brisbane on 3 and 4 June.

Enrolments are also still open for Creating a safe workplace (WH&S) on 29 April in Toowoomba and 15 May in Bundaberg, Professional advocacy – we’re in charge (30 April in Toowoomba and 22 May Cairns), and Branch Development in Brisbane on 1-2 May and 6-8 May. For more information about upcoming courses or to enrol: www.qnu.org.au/qnu-training

Date

Location

Being a QNU Contact in the workplace

22 Apr

Brisbane

Student Survival Toolkit

23 Apr

Brisbane

Creating a safe workplace (WH&S)

29 Apr

Toowoomba

Professional Advocacy – We’re in charge

30 Apr

Toowoomba

Nurses and Midwives unite!

30 Apr

Brisbane

Someone should do something about that!

1-2 May

Brisbane

Nurses and Midwives unite!

1 May

Toowoomba

QNU Branch Development 1

6-7 May

Brisbane

QNU Branch Development 2

8 May

Brisbane

Private Sector Nurses – How to fix your Workloads

13 May

Brisbane

Being a QNU Contact in the workplace

14 May

Bundaberg

Creating a safe workplace (WH&S)

15 May

Bundaberg

QH- How to fix your workloads today

15 May

Brisbane

Nurses and Midwives unite!

20 May

Cairns

Managing workloads through the BPF – a practical plan

21 May

Cairns

Professional Advocacy – We’re in charge

22 May

Cairns

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

QNU Education Officer Helena Dalton-Bridges assisting members at a course in Bundaberg.

www.qnu.org.au

Knowing your entitlements 3-4 Jun and understanding the award

Brisbane

Handling grievances in the workplace

5 Jun

Brisbane

Workplace Representatives 1

10-1112 Jun

Brisbane

TO ENROL IN THESE COURSES—  visit the QNU website at www.qnu.org.au/qnu-training OR

 ring the training unit in Brisbane on 3840 1431 or toll free 1800 177 273 APRIL 2014 | TQN | 29

NURSING AND MIDWIFERY RESEARCH

Maintenance of intravascular device patency: a survey of nursing and midwifery flushing practice SAMANTHA KEOGH AND JULIE FLYNN, AUSTRALIAN VASCULAR ACCESS TEACHING AND RESEARCH GROUP (AVATARG), NHMRC CENTRE OF RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FOR NURSING – GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY

Venous cannulation via peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVC) and central venous catheters (CVC) are frequently used in hospital care to administer fluids, drugs, blood and nutrition, and to withdraw blood for testing.

Researchers estimate that up to 85% of patients in hosital require infusion therapy, with up to 70% of patients requiring a PIVC. The proportion of CVC use is approximately 29% in the general hospital population, rising up to 80% for patients in critical care settings1-5.

These devices may need to be left in place for days or even weeks at a time, however they are associated with inherent complications which can be mechanical or infectious.

IVD failure Failure of these devices due to occlusion is unacceptably high, affecting up to 20% of patients with PIVCs and 36% of patients with CVCs6,7.

This means patients need to have the device replaced, which has implications for patient comfort, therapy and health care costs.

There have been a range of strategies developed to prevent or reduce IVDrelated complications including flushing regimes to maintain IVD patency.

However, current practice is widely varied, with poor outcomes8.

Impact of IVD failure The high IVD failure rate means millions of dollars is spent on replacement devices and related nursing and medical time.

A recent economic analysis of data from the multi-site Queensland randomised trial of PIVC replacement7 showed the mean cost of catheter replacement was approximately $70 when staff time and equipment was calculated9.

30 | TQN | APRIL 2014

Reducing the PIVC failure rate by just 10% in Australia would save $5 million each year.

Reducing the CVC failure by 5% would save Australia $25 million annually.

There is little documented evidence that flushing of IVDs is actually happening in practice10.

Current IVD maintenance policies and guidelines vary and are largely based on derived scientific principles. There are no studies comparing different flushing regimens.

Survey of Queensland nurses and midwives As a prelude to much-needed trial studies, a survey of nursing and midwifery IVD flushing practice was conducted by a research group from Griffith University.

The aim of the survey was to gain a better understanding of current IVD nursing flushing practices in the acute care setting.

The researchers employed a crosssectional survey design using a 25item electronic questionnaire and distributing it via the QNU membership database.

Survey results Twelve hundred and three nurses responded to the online survey.

Only 1178 were fully completed and analysed with n=1068 using PIVC group and n=584 in the CVC group.

The majority of respondents 72% (PIVC 742/1028) and 80% (CVC 451/566)

were aware of their facility’s policies on flushing of IVDs to maintain patency.

Most nurses reported using Sodium Chloride 0.9% for flushing both the PIVC (96%, 987/1028) and CVC (75%, 423/566).

Some form of heparin-saline combination was used in 25% of CVC cases.

A 10ml syringe was used by most respondents for flushing PIVCs and CVCs, however 24% of respondents used smaller syringes in the PIVC group.

Use of prefilled syringes was limited to 10% and 11% respectively for each group.

Frequency of flushing varied widely with the most common responses being for PRN (23% PIVC and 21% CVC) and 6th hourly (23% PIVC and 22% CVC).

Approximately half of respondents in both groups stated that there was no medical order or documentation for device flushing.

Conclusions Flushing practice for IVDs appears to vary widely.

Specific areas of practice concern that warrant further investigation include the use of heparinised saline in CVC flushing, the use of smaller than recommended syringes, the minimal use of prefilled syringes, the varied frequency of flushes, and the lack of documentation of flush orders and administration.

The study is being presented at the upcoming World Congress on Vascular Access in Berlin in June and a manuscript summarising the study will be submitted for publication in April. www.qnu.org.au

NURSING AND MIDWIFERY RESEARCH

References 1. Climo M, Diekema D, Warren DK, et al.

“Prevalence of the use of central venous access devices within and outside of the intensive care unit: results of a survey among hospitals in the prevention epicenter program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention”. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2003; 24(12): 942-5.

2. Hadaway L. “Short peripheral intravenous catheters and infections”. J Infus Nurs 2012; 35(4): 230-40.

3. Maki DG. “Improving the safety of peripheral intravenous catheters”. BMJ 2008; 337: a630.

4. Maki DG, Kluger DM, Crnich CJ. “The risk of bloodstream infection in adults with different intravascular devices: a systematic review of 200 published prospective studies”.

Mayo Clin Proc 2006; 81(9): 1159-71.

5. Zingg W, Pittet D. “Peripheral venous catheters: an under-evaluated problem”. Int J Antimicrob Agents 2009; 34 Suppl 4: S38-42.

6. Baskin JL, Pui CH, Reiss U, et al.

“Management of occlusion and thrombosis associated with long-term indwelling central venous catheters”. Lancet 2009; 374(9684): 159-69.

7. Rickard CM, Webster J, Wallis MC, et al. “Routine versus clinically indicated replacement of peripheral intravenous catheters: a randomised controlled equivalence trial”. Lancet 2012; 380(9847): 1066-74.

8. Keogh S, Marsh N, Higgins N, Davies K, Rickard C. “A time and motion study of peripheral venous catheter flushing practice using manual and prefilled flush syringes”.

Journal of Infusion Nursing 37 (2): 96-101.

9. Tuffaha HW, Rickard CM, Webster J, et al.

“Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Clinically Indicated Versus Routine Replacement of Peripheral Intravenous Catheters”. Applied health economics and health policy 2014; 12(1): 51-8.

10. New K, Marsh N, Hewer B, Webster J. “Intravascular device utilization and complications: a point prevalence survey”.

Australian Health Review (in press) 2014.

Acknowledgments The researchers are grateful to the Queensland Nurses’ Union for facilitating the distribution of the survey. The researchers are also deeply grateful to all the nursing and midwifery respondents who shared their practice information and comments. Thanks also to the Griffith Health Institute, Centre for Health Practice and Innovation and Becton Dickinson for financial support for the study.

For more information on the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Nursing (NCREN) in Queensland visit www.griffith.edu.au/health/centreresearch-excellence-nursing www.qnu.org.au

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 31

CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

C ASE S TU DY

Mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect

BY JUDY SIMPSON, ROBERTS & KANE SOLICITORS

You might think there is a problem with under-reporting of child maltreatment by professionals given the revelations from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Institutional Child Abuse.

But is this the case for nurses and midwives?

In July 2012 the Queensland Government established the Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry (the Queensland Commission) to investigate the widespread perception that the child protection system in Queensland was failing vulnerable children and their families.

The Queensland Commission published its findings and recommendations in a report Taking Responsibility: A Roadmap for Queensland Child Protection (June 2013).

In light of this report and the spotlight on child abuse, it is timely to look at the current mandatory child abuse and neglect reporting for nurses and midwives.

Current reporting obligations for Registered Nurses and Midwives Nurses and Midwives are required by law to report suspected child abuse and neglect to Child Safety Services pursuant to section 191 of the Public Health Act 2005 if they: become aware, or reasonably suspect, during the practice of his or her profession, that a child has been, is being, or is likely to be, harmed.

There are numerous categories of professionals who have reporting requirements, including medical practitioners, child safety officers and employees, teachers and school employees, the police, the Commissioner for Children and Young People and Family Court employees and counsellors.

The difficulty is the reporting requirements are not consistent and are not found in one piece of legislation 32 | TQN | APRIL 2014

but rather in several different pieces of legislation.

The Queensland Commission found there were unsustainable demands on the Queensland statutory child protection system due to the high number of intakes to Child Safety.

For example, in 2011-2012 there were 114,503 reports made to Child Safety, with only 20% of these reports reaching the threshold for a notification.

The Child Protection Act 1999 defines the threshold: “A child in need of protection is a child who-

a) Has suffered harm, is suffering harm, or is at unacceptable risk of suffering harm; and a) Does not have a parent able and willing to protect the child from the harm.”

The Queensland Commission described the task of finding the small proportion of children who actually needed ongoing statutory intervention as like ‘finding a needle in a haystack’ (QCPCI 2013).

The commission noted nearly two thirds (62%) of all reports to Child Safety Services were from three sources – the Queensland Police Service (37%), health sources (13%) and school sources (12%).

It considered the gulf between the total number of reports received and the number that reached the threshold for investigation may be due to a lack of clarity about when a report should be made (QCPCI 2013).

This finding suggests a problem with over reporting rather than under reporting.

The Queensland Commission acknowledged many of the professionals with mandated reporting requirements were not child protection experts and reporting a family to statutory child protection authorities was indeed a difficult decision.

In its report the commission reported on a trial which had begun in January 2012 on the use of a guide on mandatory reporting to help professionals make these difficult decisions.

The trial was conducted by the Child Safety Department in collaboration with Queensland Health, state and non-state schools and non-government sector and early indications suggest it helped Queensland Health staff make decisions.

The guide is an online tool that assists professionals to decide whether to report concerns to Child Safety or to refer a family to a secondary level preventive service instead (QCPCI 2013).

Problems with current reporting provisions The Queensland Commission identified problems with the current reporting provisions:  Inconsistency between the different obligations of the various professionals and the fact that reporting is required under several different pieces of legislation.  Differences in reporting thresholds – for example, unlike the obligation on the Commissioner for Children and Young People, the Queensland Health reporting obligation falls short of the threshold in that it does not require consideration of the second part of the test (i.e. that there is no parent able and willing to protect the child).  Confusion among mandatory reporters as to whether concerns must be reported immediately or after due consideration and further inquiries (QCPCI 2013).

Recommendations relevant to nurses and midwives To address these problems and to provide a consistent approach to reporting, the Queensland Commission proposed a number of recommendations. www.qnu.org.au

CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The recommendations relevant to nurses and midwives are:  An amendment to section 10(a) of the Child Protection Act 1999 to state explicitly that a child must be at risk of significant harm to meet the definition of a ‘child in need of protection’. The inclusion of the term ‘significant’ in section 10(a) of the Child Protection Act 2009 will reinforce the message to reporters that harm must be of a significant nature.  A whole of government process to: ◆ review and consolidate all existing legislative reporting obligations into the Child Protection Act 1999 ◆ develop a single ‘standard’ to govern reporting policies across core Queensland Government agencies ◆ provide support through joint training in the understanding of key threshold definitions to help professionals decide when they should report significant harm to Child Safety Services and encourage a shared understanding across government.  Amendments to the Child Protection Act 1999: ◆ to allow mandatory reporters to discharge their legal reporting obligations by referring a family to the community-based intake gateway, and afford them the same legal and confidentiality protections currently afforded to reporters ◆ provide that reporters only have protection from civil and criminal liability if in making their report they are acting not only honestly but also reasonably ◆ provide appropriate information-sharing and confidentiality provisions to support the community-based intake.

The Queensland Commission identified one of the key contributors to the overwhelming workload of Queensland’s child protection system as the rising number of intakes which included mandatory reports from the health sector.

So while nurses and midwives are not under reporting, confusion exists under the current reporting requirements about what to report and when to report it and the definition of ‘harm’.

On 20 March, the Attorney-General introduced the following three bills into the parliament in response to the recommendations of the Queensland Commission:  Child Protection Reform Amendment Bill 2014  Family and Child Commission Bill 2014 and  Public Guardian Bill 2014.

The bills were referred to the Health and Community Services Committee for inquiry and to report back to the parliament by 13 May, 2014.

The QNU will be making a submission to this inquiry.

Reflective exercise for case study over page »

Source list Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry (2013) Taking Responsibility: A Roadmap for Queensland Child Protection. www.qnu.org.au

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 33

CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

C ASE S TU DY

Reflective exercise: Mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect Completing this reflective exercise will contribute to your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours.

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia requires all nurses and midwives to complete a minimum of 20 hours CPD per registration year for each respective profession for which the individual holds current registration.

For example an individual who is a Registered Nurse and a midwife must complete 40 hours of CPD. Please refer to www.nursingmidwiferyboard. gov.au/Registration-Standards. aspx for full details.

Effective learning is not simply reading a journal article—it requires you to reflect on your readings and integrate new information where it is relevant to improve your practice.

It should include:  looking for learning points/ objectives within the content on which you reflect  considering how you might apply these in other situations to enhance your performance  changing or modifying your practice in response to the learning undertaken.

Consider the possible impact of recommendations on your professional practice from the issues raised by the report Taking Responsibility: A Roadmap for Queensland Child Protection (June 2013), Chapter 4 “Diverting families from the statutory system”.

The following questions are offered as a guide to assist you in identifying your learning from reading and analysing the content of the article.

1. What elements of the current threshold definition for mandatory notification in Chapter 4 need to be satisfied to meet this threshold (as stated also in Section 10, Child Protection Act 1999)?

2. What recommendation is made in Chapter 4 regarding the change in threshold definition?

3. What is the current element of Section 191 of the Public Health Act 2005 that is required for nurses and midwives to notify of child abuse and neglect?

4. What problems did the Queensland Commission identify with the current reporting provisions?

5. Can you provide any examples from your professional practice where you identified inconsistency between the different obligations of the various categories of professions?

6. Have you provided a mandatory notifications report that on reflection did not meet the current threshold definition, but did meet the reporting obligations required by your organisation?

7. If yes, then what is the reason/s that this mandatory notification did not meet the threshold?

Useful information can be found on the following websites: 1. Taking Responsibility: A Roadmap for Queensland Child Protection (June 2013) www.childprotectioninquiry.qld.gov.au/__ data/assets/pdf_file/0017/202625/QCPCIFINAL-REPORT-web-version.pdf 2. Public Health Act 2005 www.legislation.qld.gov.au/LEGISLTN/ CURRENT/P/PubHealA05.pdf 3. Child Protection Act 1999 www.legislation.qld.gov.au/LEGISLTN/ CURRENT/C/ChildProtectA99.pdf Following reflection, consider how you will retain and share the new knowledge about the report information and recommendations made in Chapter 4, and what current influence it has on your professional practice regarding the mandatory reporting on child abuse and neglect.

To meet the NMBA CPD standard it is important you can produce a record of CPD hours, if requested to do so, by the board on audit.

The time spent reading this article, reviewing the referenced material and then reflecting upon how to incorporate the information into your practice will contribute to your CPD hours.

Please keep a record of time spent doing each activity in your CPD record.

The following is an example only of a record of CDP hours (based on the ANMF continuing education packages):

34 | TQN | APRIL 2014

Date

Topic

Description

27-03-10

Coroner’s matter Understanding – workloads the implications of the Coroner’s recommendations for the establishment of effective workload management strategies

Learning Need OR Objective

Outcome

CPD hours

To increase my knowledge about the consequences of workloads demands and skill mix deficits on patient safety .

I have achieved 2.5 hrs a greater awareness of…..

www.qnu.org.au

MIDWIFERY

QNU meets with health minister on midwifery-led models The QNU continues to work hard with our member midwives, privately practicing midwives, the Australian College of Midwifery Queensland, the Maternity Coalition, and other stakeholders to progress continuity of midwifery care.

The going has not been easy, and it is the fortitude of Queensland midwives that has seen midwifery make inroads into extending these models.

In January, the QNU met with stakeholders to discuss midwifery issues.

The meeting used an interest-based approach to assist in identifying and prioritising shared interests.

The most important issue identified was the progression of continuity of care models through Queensland Health.

Following this meeting all stakeholders agreed to meet quarterly to review and plan.

Quarterly meetings to discuss midwifery matters were also made with Health Minister Lawrence Springborg. The stakeholder group meetings are scheduled to meet a month prior to these meetings.

The first meeting with the health minister was held on 6 March.

In addition to the health minister, attendees included representatives from the stakeholder groups, the minister’s health advisor, and the Chief Nurse Dr Frances Hughes.

The very first item on the agenda was rolling out further continuity of care models.

The meeting was very positive.

Maternity Coalition representatives reinforced that continuity of care models were consumer-driven and wanted.

The minister was very clear he is committed to achieving this goal.

Of course, one of the fundamental requirements to assist increasing the number of continuity of care models is the eligibility of midwives. www.qnu.org.au

As such there was further discussion on ways in which this could be achieved for Queensland midwives.

The Chief Nurse will convene a session in the near future to progress this.

The meeting with the Chief Nurse will also discuss Prescribing Threshold issues, which are critical to the numbers and efficacy of midwife-led continuity of care models.

The minister supported the importance of public sector continuity of care models—including the eligibility status of public sector midwives—and indicated he will take this up further with each Hospital and Health Service.

Other issues discussed included professional indemnity insurance and the homebirth exemption, and the ability of private practicing midwives to gain admitting rights to public hospitals.

It is well recognised that continuity of care models enable midwives to work to their full scope of practice and to develop meaningful relationships with the women they care for and support.

Such factors have been recognised as important in successful recruitment and retention of midwives.

In Queensland this has become imperative as there is a critical shortfall of midwives.

Hospital and Health Service managers and clinicians who have undertaken the development and implementation of these innovative models have found them highly effective and efficient.

Midwives and women who use continuity of care models report satisfactory outcomes.

...IT IS THE FORTITUDE OF QUEENSLAND MIDWIVES THAT HAS SEEN THE QNU TOGETHER WITH OUR STAKEHOLDER PARTNERS MAKE INROADS INTO EXTENDING THESE MODELS Continuity of care models are about women being cared for by a midwife they know and trust. The QNU will continue meeting with the health minister to ensure the model is expanded across the state.

Progress is gradual but definite, and persistence pays off. We are having wins with increases in the number of models, and continue to work on increasing them particularly in the rural areas of Queensland.

Women should not have to leave their community or land to birth.

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 35

INDUSTRIAL

‘AWARD MODERNISATION’ – just another club to whack nurses and midwives BOY, THEY HAVE REALLY GOT IT IN FOR US, HAVEN’T THEY? The Newman government is ramming through ‘award modernisation’—yet another piece of legislation aimed at whacking nurses and midwives.

In October last year, the state government inserted what they call ‘Award Modernisation’ into the Industrial Relations Act. ‘Award modernisation’ is nothing more than weasel wording for watering down your award by stripping long-standing conditions out and never letting them back in.

The Newman government has also changed the Industrial Relations Act so that if the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission does not comply with the government’s intentions, Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie may simply tell the QIRC what to do.

In his instructions to the QIRC, Mr Bleijie may address any matter about the award modernisation process he considers appropriate.

So much for the independence of our industrial tribunal.

Non-allowable content The Industrial Relations Act now states what cannot be included in awards and enterprise agreements.  workload management  contracting  employment security  union encouragement  organisational change  policy incorporation  private practice  resource allocation  right of entry  discrimination  Queensland employment standards  the type of engagements that are available 36 | TQN | APRIL 2014

 restrictions on flexible rostering arrangements

 accident pay or other amounts payable because an employee sustains an injury  restrictions on the ability of an employer to offer a high-income guarantee contract to a highincome senior employee  training arrangements  delivery of services  workforce planning The language used in the Industrial Relations Act are open to interpretation—something we fear Queensland Health will grab with glee to remove your award entitlements.

The QNU’s greatest fear is for our Queensland Health workload management tool, the BPF.

Queensland Health’s ‘slash and burn’ agenda?

Mr Bleijie recently ordered the QIRC to complete the ‘modernisation’ of awards in the public health care sector— including your Nurses and Midwives Award 2012—by 30 June this year.

The QIRC invited health unions and Queensland Health to provide any relevant material that might assist the Commission.

Queensland Health management responded with a few weasel words of their own.

In their response, Queensland Health management stated their desire for a “co-operative approach” in “the establishment of a new safety net of www.qnu.org.au

INDUSTRIAL

‘AWARD MODERNISATION’ IS NOTHING MORE THAN WEASEL WORDING FOR WATERING DOWN YOUR AWARD minimum terms and conditions of employment”.

Sounds good, right? Unfortunately, this ‘new safety net’ does not include your current award.

In fact, in their submission Queensland Health specifically states current awards do not align with their idea of a ‘safety net’ of minimum employment conditions: “The key focus of this process (award modernisation) is to establish modern awards that provide an appropriate simple safety net of minimum terms and conditions for the circumstances of each industry.”

So what is Queensland Health’s idea of ‘minimum terms and conditions of employment’?

They’re not telling as their award modernisation team is still working on it. We fear they are taking a ‘slash and burn’ approach to award modernisation: 1. Strip back current awards to an as-yet-undefined minimum set of conditions.

2. Move to these new minimum conditions.

Let’s not beat around the bush.

Queensland Health is responsible for operating a complex public health system with over 80,000 employees.

When management talks about ‘minimum terms and conditions of employment’, they’re not talking about making health workers better off.

Nowhere does Queensland Health propose a ‘no disadvantage test’ to ensure health workers aren’t worse off.

Nowhere does Queensland Health state that no employee should be worse off as a consequence of the award modernisation process.

The QNU has written to Health Minister Lawrence Springborg to seek commitments on these issues but has not yet received a response. www.qnu.org.au

Blame-shifting onto nurses and midwives A lack of skill and experience in industrial relations is hurting Queensland Health.

We see this with Hospital and Health Services and Corporate Office constantly writing, rewriting, and then deleting Queensland Health policies and guidelines.

Many Queensland Health managers are deeply confused by awards and enterprise agreements, simply because they don’t take the time to read them.

Many Queensland Health managers also have a poor understanding of their own policies and guidelines, and arbitrarily decide these policies and guidelines must be changed.

Some are embarrassingly ignorant of the work environment they are tasked with managing. For example, few Queensland Health bureaucrats have worked a night shift, or even visited nurses and midwives on night shift.

Unfortunately, the experience of the QNU over many years is that Queensland Health’s HR and IR functions are dysfunctional.

We need only look at the enormous staff turnover in Queensland Health’s HR and IR sections to appreciate the problem, and the substandard outcomes that result.

The QNU has not spent decades advancing members working conditions to now accept any reduction in those hard won entitlements by a deceitful and underhanded attempt at stripping away awards and enterprise agreements through ‘award modernisation’.

At time of going to print the QNU has not viewed the draft of the modernised award, so we are unsure of the extent of the impact on nurses and midwives— however, we must be prepared for the worst-case scenario.

Queensland Health has made its intentions clear—but they can rest assured nurses and midwives will respond in no uncertain terms: hands off our award!

Timeline for award modernisation STEP 1

14 February

QIRC requests any documentation from unions for QIRC’s consideration prior to release of new draft Modern Award.

21 February

Last date unions can submit documentation for QIRC’s consideration.

STEP 2

17-21 March

New draft of Modern Award sent to affected unions, with request for written submissions with 7-10 days.

STEP 3

Late March

QIRC conference of all affected parties to try to resolve any differences on content.

STEP 4

Final draft of new Modern Award sent to all parties, with request for detailed objections.

If no objections, new Modern Award will be finalised by Full Bench.

STEP 5

If objections are received, direction for a hearing of the objections by Full Bench will be made.

STEP 6

Full Bench Hearing.

STEP 7

30 June 2014 Decision from Full Bench. Full Bench to issue new Modern Award by 30 June.

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 37

INDUSTRIAL

New agreement for Mercy CQ inching toward the finish line

Mercy (Mater) Central Queensland nurses and midwives are edging closer to a much improved enterprise agreement.

Voluntary redundancy myths and mysteries The QNU has been advised that some of our members are being led astray when it comes to the rules and regulations around Voluntary Redundancies.

We’ve had reports that a number of members are being told by QH employment personnel they are not permitted to work for Queensland Health again under any circumstances if they have accepted a voluntary redundancy from QH. This is incorrect.

If you hope to keep all of your VR payout then it is true you are not allowed to work more than 20 days 38 | TQN | APRIL 2014

The final sticking point is Mercy CQ’s reluctance to improve terms within the agreement which are inferior to the award or do not meet other approval requirements.

All new enterprise agreements must be approved by the Fair Work Commission (FWC)—and the FWC will not approve an agreement with terms inferior to the award.

The agreement was voted up by nurses and midwives after almost four years of bargaining with Mercy CQ, and after nurses and midwives voted down an earlier substandard offer.

Currently, Mercy CQ nurses and midwives are on one of the dreaded 2005 WorkChoices enterprise agreements, which contains very poor working conditions.

The QNU applied to the Fair Work Commission to terminate the WorkChoices agreement and bring Mercy CQ nurses and midwives up to the basic award conditions.

Astonishingly, Mercy CQ accused the QNU of seeking to ‘create chaos’ by trying to raise below-award conditions of employment up to award standard.

The need for the FWC to step in was put on hold once Mercy CQ made an improved agreement offer which was voted up by nurses and midwives.

The new agreement meets most of nurses’ and midwives’ claims and contains a large number of very significant improvements, including better leave entitlements, allowances, hours, breaks, and rosters.

However, the agreement also contains a number of terms which are inferior to the award or do not meet other approval requirements.

These terms must be improved before the agreement can be approved.

Unfortunately, Mercy CQ was extremely reluctant to improve these terms, and consistently rejected the QNU’s requests to meet to discuss the matter.

Ultimately the QNU was forced to notify FWC. In the commission, the QNU helped Mercy CQ understand the improved agreement is still not quite good enough to be approved.

Mercy CQ nurses and midwives are now awaiting management’s response. Here’s hoping the penny has finally dropped!

(full time equivalent) during the VR exclusion period.

The government’s Directive (No.11/12) on redundancies includes a section on re-engagement.

A person who has received a package and who is subsequently re-engaged for more than 20 days in the period of time covering their redundancy payment (the severance payment period), has to refund the unexpired portion of their payout.

That is, if an employee received a payout of 30 weeks and was reemployed at Queensland Health after 20 weeks, they would have to repay the remainder of the payout.

Any QH employer or potential employer who says they cannot employ you because you have taken a VR is incorrect and you can direct them to the government’s Directive (No.11/12) on redundancies for clarification.

The Queensland Government’s Directive on voluntary redundancies (No. 11/12) can be found at: www.psc.qld.gov.au/publications/ directives/dateof-release. aspx

www.qnu.org.au

PROFILE

A voluntary experience in Bairo Pite Hospital, Timor Leste

BY QNU MEMBER CARMEL COCHRANE

After working in tuberculosis control for 22 years and having taken a redundancy in September 2013, I was keen to fulfil a lifelong passion to volunteer in a developing community.

At my farewell an infectious diseases paediatrician asked if I would review a hospital TB program in Timor Leste with him. This was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Despite the atrocities that have occurred there, the Timorese people are very happy, friendly, and family-orientated, rich in spirit yet so poor with regards to everyday living conditions we take for granted, like clean drinking water, effective sanitation, access to adequate health care, law and order, and air conditioning!

The Bairo Pite Hospital receives minimal government funding, and is heavily dependent on donations.

About 44 inpatients are housed in five small open wards and about 200 outpatients are seen daily by the hospital’s founder, Dr Dan Murphy, as well as volunteer doctors and medical students.

Staff at the hospital are doing a wonderful job, but are under-resourced and lack modern training and experience.

Bed management means moving beds closer together if more inpatient beds are needed, or allocating two patients to a bed in the malnutrition ward.

Patients are generally cared for by family, so it is not uncommon to find several people in a bed on the morning round— obviously a major problem in TB wards!

The availability of drugs, especially antibiotics, regularly posed clinical and ethical dilemmas for medical staff.

With no X-Ray equipment, patients requiring diagnostic medical imaging are transported to the National Hospital.

Tuberculosis is rampant. Approximately one third of the country’s TB is treated at Bairo Pite Hospital—1100 new cases each year. www.qnu.org.au

Many cases remain undiagnosed— unsurprising given the cramped and poorly ventilated living conditions, the lack of public awareness of disease, and the culture of spitting (one often had to avoid walking into the path of a direct hit!).

Infection control measures were almost non-existent at the hospital.

Staff in TB wards did not wear N95 masks, patients did not wear masks, there was no cough hygiene, minimal handwashing, and open buckets on the floor were used as sputum receptacles.

In one case, the infant of a mum with presumptive TB was allowed to roomin. In another, a patient with HIV was admitted overnight to the TB ward.

“No spitting” signs were totally ignored by patients, visitors and unfortunately staff.

This was tuberculosis control unlike anything I had seen before.

I feel very privileged to have made a smalll contribution to the work at the hospital.

During my stay, I compiled a report on our observations of TB control, conducted TB staff education sessions, developed 12 infection control and TB related posters in the local Tetum language, and developed a plan for using

tissues and recycled plastic water bottles as sputum receptacles.

It was an incredibly humbling yet satisfying way to move on from my old position, while putting my skills and experience to use.

But ultimately, my work in Timor Leste was a mere drop in the ocean.

Significant political commitment and funding is needed to reduce the transmission of TB disease.

If you can help, or are interested in volunteering, visit www.bairopitehospital.org

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 39

HEALTH AND SAFETY

State government proposes to reduce safety standards The Queensland Attorney-General, Jarrod Bleijie, has proposed changes to workplace health and safety laws which significantly reduce the power of the Health and Safety Representatives who keep your workplace safe.

The proposed changes will: Require at least 24 hours’ notice by Work, Health and Safety (WHS) entry permit holders before they can enter a workplace to inquire into a suspected contravention.

What does this mean? Health and Safety Representatives and QNU officials cannot immediately enter a workplace if there is a threat of illness or injury posed by a workplace hazard.

Remove the power of Health and Safety Representatives to direct workers to cease unsafe work.

What does this mean? An employer can order workers to continue working even if the Health and Safety Representative or QNU official has a reasonable concern there is an immediate risk of illness or injury posed by a workplace hazard.

Remove the requirement for an employer to provide a list of health and safety representatives to the Work Health and Safety regulator.

What does this mean? It is more difficult for the regulator to distribute new and updated information to Health and Safety Representatives, and to assist them in ensuring appropriate safety standards are maintained.

Allow for codes of practice adopted in Queensland to be varied or revoked without requiring national consultation as required by the WHS Act. What does this mean? Nation-wide health and safety standards can be reduced or removed without input from organisations like the QNU. 40 | TQN | APRIL 2014

The QNU’s response In our written and verbal submissions to the parliamentary committee, the QNU provided detailed evidence to support our claims to retain these important rights.

We cited research on the workplace hazards nurses and midwives face every day and we provided case studies that demonstrate the need for unions to enter premises to inspect unsafe workplaces.

Nurses and midwives work in a unique occupational environment that can require rotating and night shifts, long hours, prolonged standing, lifting, and exposure to chemicals, infectious diseases, x-ray radiation and other hazards.

Because nurses and midwives work extended, unpredictable hours with a lack of regular breaks they are more likely to experience elevated fatigue levels.

The continual demands of their work place nurses and midwives at high risk of musculoskeletal disorders and diseases.

Nurses and midwives are also increasingly exposed to workplace violence.

All these factors can negatively affect nurses’ and midwives’ health and wellbeing.

The safety of nurses and midwives is intrinsic to patient safety.

Nurses and midwives work tirelessly to keep the health system safe and to provide quality health and care services for all Queenslanders.

It is critical nurses and midwives know they can call on the QNU

to assist when there is an immediate workplace health and safety risk.

The Attorney-General’s erosion of workplace health and safety rights will prevent nurses and midwives from carrying out their important work in a safe and secure environment.

The QNU has called on the parliamentary committee to recommend the immediate withdrawal of the Attorney-General’s bill from the parliament.

The committee has reported to parliament and has addressed a few concerns in its recommendations.

Link to parliamentary committe report: bit.ly/1mtDA4f

www.qnu.org.au

HEALTH AND SAFETY

What your employer must provide if you are impaired The QNU understands some Queensland Health Hospital and Health Services are reluctant to accommodate nurses and midwives who have an impairment.

This reluctance is not only unacceptable from an equality perspective, it’s also a breach of its own policy.

Queensland Health has a responsibility to support nurses and midwives with impairments, both through its return to work protocols and in its recruitment processes for advertised positions.

Queensland Health’s HR policy G3 Reasonable Adjustment (QHPOL-2_0) details this responsibility.

According to this policy, QH managers must “make appropriate and reasonable adjustments to the workplace (including the employees’ role) to lessen the impact of the impairment or enable the employee to commence employment or return to work”.

This requirement is legally binding. It is stipulated within the Anti Discrimination Act (1991) and if not applied correctly, an employee may seek assistance from the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland.

Examples of reasonable adjustment include changes to equipment to assist the nurse or midwife, or placement in another position in the workplace.

Reasonable adjustment applies to private and aged care sectors too!

While this policy is relevant to QH nurses and midwives, similar principles apply to nurses and midwives in the private and aged care sectors.

An employer must ensure a proper assessment of the nurse or midwife’s individual needs is undertaken by an appropriately qualified professional.

This assessment should be conducted at the cost of the employer.

The employer is then required to implement any recommended changes unless they are able to prove that doing so would place “unjustifiable hardship” on the organisation.

Some of the difficulties reported by members with impairments who are unable to continue in their current position include:  being given a list of vacant positions within the workplace with no further assistance. In this case the QNU was able to intervene and negotiate with the employer. Ultimately a suitable workplace was found despite the employer’s initial refusal.  the assessment conducted on one position used as the assessment for all positions in that facility.

This is unacceptable behaviour. Any member exposed to this should contact the QNU. www.qnu.org.au

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 41

OPINION

ABUSE of power

BY MICHELLE JAMES, MAURICE BLACKBURN LAWYERS

First published by the Brisbane Times, 7 February 2014.

The recent holidays have done little to dampen the enthusiasm of critics of the Government’s recent raft of criminal association legislation.

42 | TQN | APRIL 2014

The Premier is feeling the pressure.

In response to the news that a Gold Coast law firm, attempting to interpret poorly drafted anti-association laws, advised their client they may be arrested if they attended a court hearing where other ‘bikies’ were present, Mr Newman said: “They’re paid by criminal gangs, of course they’ll say and do anything to present their client in the best possible light, but their clients are criminals.

“These people are hired guns. They take money from people who sell drugs to our teenagers and young people. Yes, everybody’s got a right to be defended under the law but you’ve got to see it for what it is: they are part of the machine, part of the criminal gang machine, and they will see, say and do anything to

defend their clients, and try and get them off and indeed progress ... their dishonest case”.

Mr Newman has previously made it clear that he does not have much time for the legal profession, the judiciary or the rule of law in general. In the wake of criticism over legislation purporting to deal with sex offenders (legislation subsequently found to be invalid) he responded by calling lawyers “apologists for paedophiles”. He has also derided the profession as “self-interested”.

It appears that the whole justice system is a major inconvenience to him. A dangerous view in one with such power.

We do not have to look too far through the history books to understand the impact of such beliefs on democracy.

Yet it is Mr Newman’s outburst yesterday that gives us our clearest insight yet into the mindset of Queensland’s Premier, and which succinctly illustrates his true contempt for our legal system and the rule of law.

He firstly complains: “They’re paid by criminal gangs, of course they’ll say and do anything to present their client in the best possible light, but their clients are criminals”.

The objection here appears to be not only that lawyers are paid at all, but a

www.qnu.org.au

OPINION

“These people are hired guns. They take money from people who sell drugs to our teenagers and young people. Yes, everybody’s got a right to be defended under the law but you’ve got to see it for what it is: they are part of the machine, part of the criminal gang machine, and they will see, say and do anything to defend their clients, and try and get them off and indeed progress ... their dishonest case”.

view that anyone merely charged with an anti-association offence must as a matter of law be a ‘criminal’, specifically a drug dealer who sells drugs to teenagers and young people.

Neither of these views has any basis in reality and having them expressed by the Premier exposes Queensland to further ridicule from those already scornful of a legislature enacting and defending legislation they cannot fail to appreciate will be found invalid.

Mr Newman correctly acknowledges that most basic of rights in our criminal legal system namely that “everybody’s got a right to be defended under the law” before qualifying it with the incoherent statement “but you’ve got to see it for what it is: [lawyers] are part of the machine, the criminal gang machine”.

Does the Premier really believe everyone charged with a crime is automatically guilty? Or just those he has labelled a bikie? He also seems to be absurdly suggesting that in acting for a client in a criminal matter, any lawyer concerned becomes part of that criminal element.

And this is notwithstanding any issues around guilt.

These sorts of comments are more commonly heard in countries who do not operate within a democratic system.

He continues: “…they will see, say and do anything to defend their clients, and try and get them off and indeed progress ... their dishonest case”.

The Bar Association of Queensland and the Queensland Law Society have called www.qnu.org.au

these comments ‘objectionable’ and ‘inappropriate’.

I concur.

They are a disgrace and further, raise questions about Mr Newman in the senior and responsible position he presently occupies. The ethical duty owed by all legal practitioners to the Court is of paramount import in all matters in which they act, and if Mr Newman is of the view there are practitioners who do not adhere to their professional obligations he should address those concerns on an individual basis through the appropriate channels.

Indeed, it would be remiss of him not to do so, given the seriousness of such an allegation.

In this context, it is the Premier who appears to be willing to ‘see, do and say anything’ to defend his Government’s misconceived laws borne of a lack of consultation with the relevant stakeholders and naïve views about what is capable of curtailing organised crime.

There is an exquisite irony in Mr Newman rubbishing Tony Fitzgerald’s and Gary Crooke’s recent criticism by saying (in relation to Mr Fitzgerald) “I don’t think he is particularly being clear and analytical about what’s really going on”.

On the contrary. Mr Fitzgerald’s views are very clear, that “[a]rrogant, ill-informed politicians who cynically misuse the power of the state for personal or political benefit are a far greater threat to democracy than criminals, even organised gangs”.

The additional concern is not just the embarrassment all Queenslanders should feel at a Premier who does not appear to understand or respect the underpinnings of our legal system.

It is that in constantly deriding the legal system and profession, including the judiciary and esteemed former judges such as Tony Fitzgerald, Mr Newman is systematically undermining the very sense of justice in our State, and indeed respect for the rule of law in its entirety.

It is a cornerstone of democracy that citizens know they will be treated fairly by the legal system: have their charges sufficiently particularised, be presumed innocent until found guilty, and be entitled to a defence and representation.

The Premier’s comments yesterday have genuine capacity to diminish that faith and respect. And if belief in the legal system is diminished in our society, it is folly to believe it will be limited to criminal defence lawyers.

I have previously said publicly I am proud to be a lawyer, and my pride in our profession and the work I do has not been diminished by the Premier’s comments.

I doubt many of my colleagues would have a different view: indeed it is not lawyers, but rather those we serve in the broader community, who suffer most from the Premier’s sustained attacks upon the legal profession and the rule of law.

A ‘hired gun’ indeed.

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 43

SOCIAL

Can you help our drought-hit farmers?

The QNU has kicked off a fundraising drive for farmers battling the big dry.

On 7 February, the QNU Council voted to donate $5000 to nonprofit organisation Aussie Helpers.

Aussie Helpers is a volunteer charity which fights poverty and lifts the spirits of those severely affected by drought in the outback.

The QNU donation was quickly followed by a donation of $3000 from the ANMF Victorian Branch, and another $150 from the ANMF ACT Branch.

QNU Secretary Beth Mohle said she wanted farmers and farming communities to know the union’s 50,000 nurses and midwives cared.

“The QNU understands many families throughout the state are facing severe hardship as a result of the drought,’’ Beth said.

“We would like them to know that the nurses’ union and our 50,000 members in both the city and regional Queensland are aware of their plight.

“We are campaigning to raise funds in both Queensland and around Australia by encouraging our members and the Australian union movement to donate.’’

44 | TQN | APRIL 2014

The drought is taking a huge financial and emotional toll. It is believed 18 farmers have committed suicide as a result of the recent drought.

“I would urge anyone experiencing symptoms of depression or anxiety to contact their local mental health services, Beyond Blue, or Lifeline,’’ Beth said.

“The conditions our drought-impacted farmers are experiencing can only be imagined and we would again like to let them know Queensland nurses and midwives care and are thinking of them.’’

Sometimes it’s easy to let the onslaught of day-to-day activities overwhelm us, and make us forget that even a small helping hand can help a lot.

Can you and your colleagues help farmers doing it tough at this time?

For more information on Aussie Helpers or to donate please visit www.aussiehelpers.org.au Be sure to let the QNU know if your workplace makes a donation. www.qnu.org.au

YOUR LIBRARY

The QNU Library has more than 3000 books and over 60 journals. The collection can be searched online in the members-only section on the QNU website (www.qnu.org.au).

The QNU website also contains:  information about new library acquisitions  information on borrowing online  a list of the current QNU journal subscriptions Small groups can book the library for study sessions.

Contact the library on (07) 3840 1480 or library@qnu.org.au for details.

Loans from the QNU collection Books and videos are available for loan to all Queensland Nurses’ Union members at no charge. Books can be ordered online, by phone, by fax, or by visiting the library.  Maximum of 4 items per request.  Postage to members is paid for by the QNU with return postage being the responsibility of the member.  Periodicals are not available for loan but articles may be photocopied in the library at 15 cents a page. Library staff will photocopy requested articles for $3.30 (incl. GST) per article.

Interlibrary loans The QNU library belongs to a network of health libraries (GRATISNET). Requests for photocopies of journal articles should be submitted on copyright request forms giving full citations and accompanied by a cheque or money order.

Below: Madeleine (left) and Pat, our helpful librarians in the QNU library

www.qnu.org.au

Samples of the citation required:  Journal articles: NURSING MANAGEMENT Vol. 30 (9) Sep. 1999: pp. 16-17 KEELING, Bett. How to allocate the right staff mix across shifts.  Books: WATSON, Jean. Postmodern nursing and beyond. London: Churchill Livingstone, 1999.

Interlibrary charges  Photocopies of articles: $3.30ea (incl. GST).  Book loans: $6.60ea (incl. GST).

Access to CINAHL Plus with Full Text Members are welcome to visit the library to access CINAHL Plus with Full Text, a database which has indexing for over 4000 journals from nursing and allied health, and full text articles from over 760 journals.

NORMAL LIBRARY HOURS Monday, Wednesday, Friday 8.30am–2.30pm Tuesday, Thursday 9am–4pm 07 3840 1480 library@qnu.org.au www.qnu.org.au Small groups can book the library for study sessions.

Contact the library for details.

Literature searches Library staff will conduct literature searches tailored for specific assignments or requests at a cost of $8.25 (incl. GST).

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 45

CALENDAR

If you would like to see your conference or reunion on this page, let us know by emailing your details to dsmith@qnu.org.au

APRIL QNU training Being a QNU Contact in the workplace 22 April, Brisbane Student Survival Toolkit 23 April, Brisbane Creating a safe workplace (WH&S) 29 April, Toowoomba Professional Advocacy – We’re in charge 30 April, Toowoomba Nurses and Midwives unite!

30 April, Brisbane www.qnu.org.au/qnu-training World Day for Safety and Health at Work 28 April 2014 15th National Nurse Education Conference Changing Boards 30 April-2 May, Adelaide www.sapmea.asn.au/conventions/ nnec2014/index.html

MAY QNU training Someone should do something about that!

1-2 May, Brisbane Nurses and Midwives unite!

1 May, Toowoomba QNU Branch Development 1 6-7 May, Brisbane QNU Branch Development 2 8 May, Brisbane Private Sector Nurses – How to fix your Workloads 13 May, Brisbane Being a QNU Contact in the workplace 14 May, Bundaberg Creating a safe workplace (WH&S) 15 May, Bundaberg QH- How to fix your workloads today 15 May, Brisbane Nurses and Midwives unite!

20 May, Cairns Managing workloads through the BPF – a practical plan 21 May, Cairns Professional Advocacy – We’re in charge 22 May, Cairns www.qnu.org.au/qnu-training 5th Australian Emergency Nurse Practitioner Conference 2-3 May, Sydney www.dcconferences.com.au/ nursepracED

Australian & New Zealand Disaster and Emergency Management Conference Earth, Fire and Rain 5-7 May, Gold Coast http://anzdmc.com.au

Drug and Alcohol Nurses of Australasia (DANA) Conference 2014 Speak Up 18 - 20 June 2014, Sydney www.danaconference.com.au

International Nurses Day 12 May 2014

World Refugee Day 20 June 2014

Australian Wound Management Association National Conference A gold standard: research and clinical practice 7-10 May 2014, Gold Coast www.awma.com.au/awma2014

2nd Annual Worldwide Nursing Conference Health Disparities 23-24 June, Singapore www.nursing-conf.org/

Australian College of Operating Room Nurses 16th National Conference All for one and one for all 21-24 May, Melbourne www.tayloredimages.com.au/ acorn2014/index.html Eating Disorders and Obesity Conference A Shared Approach: assessment, prevention and treatment 26-27 May, Gold Coast http://eatingdisordersaustralia.org.au/ World No Tobacco Day 31 May 2014

QNU Annual Conference 16 – 18 July, Brisbane Cancer Nurses Society of Australia 17th Annual Winter Congress Cancer Nursing: Leading in a time of change 24-26 July, Pullman Albert Park, Melbourne http://cnsa.org.au/professionaldevelopment/national-conferences. html

AUGUST International Day of the World’s Indigenous People 9 August 8th International Council of Nurses, International Nurse Practitioner/ Advanced Practice Nursing Network Conference Advanced nursing practice: Expanding access and improving health care outcomes 18-20 August, Helsinki, Finland www.nurses.fi/8th-icn-internationalnurse-prac/

JUNE QNU training Knowing your entitlements and understanding the award 3-4 June, Brisbane Handling grievances in the workplace 5 June, Brisbane Workplace Representatives 1 10-11-12 June, Brisbane www.qnu.org.au/qnu-training

World Congress of Cardiology 4-7 May 2014, Melbourne Victoria www.world-heart-federation. org/congress-and-events/worldcongress-of-cardiology-scientificsessions-2014/

Emergency Nursing - the door that never closes 7-15 June, Pacific Island Cruise, Carnival Spirit, departs Sydney http://cpdcruises.com.au/ conferences/Emergency-Nursing-thefront-door-that-never-closes/

International Day of the Midwife 5 May 2014

World Day Against Child Labour 12 June 2014

46 | TQN | APRIL 2014

JULY Naidoc Week 6 - 13 July 2014

National Forum on Long Term Unemployment Building Capability 18-19 August 2014, Gold Coast http://longtermunemployment.org.au 15th International Mental Health Conference 25-27 August, Gold Coast http://anzmh.asn.au/

SEPTEMBER 18th International Conference on Cancer Nursing 7-11 September, Panama City http://chnwa2014.iceaustralia.com/ International Literacy Day 8 September

QNU Meeting of Delegates 8 September, Brisbane 10 September, Gold Coast 16 September, Toowoomba 18 September, Sunshine Coast 23 September, Rockhampton 24 September, Mackay 30 September, Bundaberg 18th International Conference on Cancer Nursing 7-11 September, Panama City www.isncc.org/?page=18th_ICCN Nurses For Nurses Network 2014 Annual Conference Practice Innovation in a Contemporary Nursing Landscape 20-27 September, Norwegian Jade, Departing Venice, Italy http://cpdcruises.com.au/ conferences/Nurses-for-Nurses-2014Annual-Conference/

OCTOBER QNU Meeting of Delegates 1 October, Hervey Bay 8 October, Townsville 9 October, Cairns International Day of Older Persons 1 October Mental Health Week 5-12 October World Mental Health Day 10 October Safe Work Australia Week 27 October-2 November QNU Professional Symposium 30-31 October 2014, Brisbane

NOVEMBER International Day of Tolerance 16 November 2nd International Conference on Nursing & Healthcare Exploring the Possibilities towards Better Healthcare 17-19 November, Chicago, USA http://nursing2014.conferenceseries. net Universal Children’s Day 20 November International Day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women 25 November

DECEMBER World Aids Day 1 December International Day for People with a Disability 3 December Human Rights Day 10 December

www.qnu.org.au

YOUR SUPER

The super gap Despite the introduction of compulsory superannuation over 20 years ago, most Australian women don’t have anywhere near enough saved for their senior years.

2014 HESTA Aged Care Awards

Nominate a top aged care professional now With people living longer than ever before, those caring for older Australians play an increasingly important and demanding role in our communities.

If you know of an outstanding aged care professional, now is the time to nominate them for the 2014 HESTA Aged Care Awards.

The winners of the HESTA Aged Care Awards share in a $30,000 prize pool, generously provided by long-term Awards supporter, ME Bank.

Nominations are open until Friday, 30 May 2014.

HESTA CEO Anne-Marie Corboy says the awards provide an opportunity for people to acknowledge the significant contribution aged care professionals make to improve the lives of older Australians.

There are three award categories — Outstanding Organisation, Team Innovation and Individual Distinction.

Finalists will be announced on 15 July 2014, with interstate finalists flown to Melbourne for the awards dinner on Tuesday, 5 August 2014.

HESTA is one of Australia’s largest super funds, with more than 770,000 members and $27 billion in assets. More people in health and community services choose HESTA for their super.

To make a nomination before Friday, 30 May 2014 or to find out more about the HESTA Aged Care Awards, visit hestaawards.com.au Issued by H.E.S.T. Australia Ltd ABN 66 006 818 695 AFSL No.235249, the Trustee of Health Employees Superannuation Trust Australia (HESTA) ABN 64 971 749 321.

The facts According to a study performed by the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) in 20111, women have significantly less super saved than men. The estimated median superannuation balance for women aged between 55 and 64 years was $53,000, compared to $90,000 for men in the same age group.

This underfunding has meant that many women are forced to rely on the Age Pension for support1, with up to 77%1 of women dependent on some form of Government pension.

However, it’s important to know the pension is designed only as a safety net and might not be enough to fund your retirement.

Even though the superannuation gender gap is closing, women still lag well behind men whenaccumulating retirement savings. Lower pay, time out of the workforce to raise children and shouldering the bulk of unpaid domestic work can make it challenging for women to build a reasonable amount of super.

Easy ways to boost super There are some quick and easy ways to boost your super so you can take control of your future and perhaps be less dependent on the Age Pension in retirement:  Ask your employer to pay some of your pre-tax wage into super. Before-tax salary sacrificing can be a tax-friendly way to grow your super.  Make super contributions out of your own pocket. Known as ‘non-concessional’ contributions, these after-tax super contributions aren’t subject to the 15% contributions tax because you have already paid income tax on this money.

Depending on your income, you may also be eligible for a government co-contribution to your fund.  Ask your partner to make contributions on your behalf. They may be able to claim a tax offset on the contributions made to your fund.

With super, small contributions now can make a big difference over time. Visit the QSuper website at qsuper.qld. gov.au for some handy calculators to help you keep track of and maximise your super.

1. The Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees, Super-Poor, But Surviving – Experiences of Australian Women in Retirement (2011).

This information is provided by the fund administrator, QSuper Limited (ABN 50 125 248 286 AFSL 334546) which is ultimately owned by the QSuper Board (ABN 32 125 059 006) as trustee for the QSuper Fund (ABN 60 905 115 063). All products are issued by the QSuper Board as trustee for the QSuper Fund.

This information has been prepared for general purposes only without taking into account your objectives, financial situation, or needs. Consider whether the product is appropriate for you and read the product disclosure statement (PDS) before making a decision. You can download the PDS from our website at qsuper.qld.gov.au, or call us on 1300 360 750 and we’ll send you a copy. © QSuper Board of Trustees 2014

www.qnu.org.au

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 47

Health Ed Professionals® 2014 Seminars with Australasian presenter Anne Evans-Murray

Respiratory & Cardiac Nursing Skills Brisbane – 16 & 17 May – Traders Hotel, 159 Roma St Suitable for nurses in any clinical area; complex conditions; presented by Anne Evans-Murray, author of “ECGs Simply”

Full: $450.00 One day: $230.00

Leadership in Nursing Brisbane – 31 May – Traders Hotel, 159 Roma St Learn about the essential skills needed when in a nursing leadership position.

$260.00

The foundation of a career that’s rewarding in every respect.

Clinical Assessment Skills Brisbane – 15 & 16 August – Traders Hotel, 159 Roma St Suitable for nurses in any clinical area; complex conditions; presented by Anne Evans-Murray, author of “ECGs Simply”

Full: $450.00 One day: $230.00

Become a podiatrist in only 2.5 years with Queensland University of Technology’s new graduate entry pathway.

Developing Confidence...

Gold Coast – 13 September – John Flynn Hospital, Tugun $210.00

Disorders of the Decade Brisbane – 29 September – Traders Hotel, 159 Roma St Suitable for nurses in any clinical area. Learn about the worrisome disorders becoming more prevalent in the current decade.

Full: $260.00

Cardiac Arrhythmias – Basic to Complex Brisbane – 17 & 18 October – Traders Hotel, 159 Roma St Suitable for nurses in any clinical area; complex conditions; presented by Anne Evans-Murray, author of “ECGs Simply”

Full: $450.00 One day: $230.00

All our seminars are held at great venues and include full catering, seminar notes and attendance certificates issued. More events are listed on the website.

Information available from Health Ed Professionals Pty Ltd Ph: (07) 5563 3054

With 100%* of our recent students employed after graduation, it’s clear that choosing Podiatry at QUT is rewarding in more ways than one.

Email: info@healtheducation.com.au

CRICOS No.00213J © QUT 2014 QUT-14-1213 20285

This one day seminar will greatly benefit all attending in work, home and social situations; a non-threatening, entertaining, relaxed presentation, no audience role plays! Anne will address the problems of workplace bullying.

This vital healthcare discipline is concerned with much more than the feet. Podiatrists consider the health and well-being of the whole person, working with other health professionals to provide solutions for foot and lower limb problems which can make a positive difference to patients’ quality of life.

Find out more about whether studying Podiatry might be for you. www.qut.edu.au/podiatry *Source: QUT Graduate Destination Survey 2009-2011 and 2013 data.

Details & secure registration: www.healtheducation.com.au

Health Ed Professionals® & OSCA Health Education® Course lecturers Heather James & Anne Evans-Murray

Acute Cardiac Care Course Gold Coast: Monday 7 to Saturday 12 July 2014 Gold Coast: Monday 1 to Saturday 6 December 2014

Acute Complex Care Course Gold Coast: Monday 30 June to Saturday 5 July 2014 Gold Coast: Sat & Sun 19-20 July, 2-3, 9-10 August 2014 Caboolture: Monday 17 to Saturday 22 November 2014 Gold Coast: Monday 24 to Saturday 29 November 2014 For Registered & Endorsed Enrolled Nurses, Ambulance Paramedics & Undergraduate nursing students.

Both courses are accredited with Griffith University and QUT in both Bachelor of Nursing and Masters of Nursing programs. The courses are equivalent to a one semester tertiary level subject/course in teaching and study time. Please contact us to discuss the credit arrangements. Courses may also be taken for continuing professional development points for annual registration purposes. Both courses are delivered using intensive mode over 6 days plus assessments. Hours: 9:00 – 5:00 each day. The Complex Care course includes an accredited (RCNA, RACGP & ACRRM) adult ALS dertification course.

Course fees: Undergrad students (Australian residents) Gold Coast: $775; Caboolture: $800. RNs/EEns & APs: Gold Coast $1,500; Caboolture $1,525. All international students: $1,600

Adult Advanced Life Support – 2 days Accredited Course: RCNA, RACGP & ACRRM

16-17 Jun, 31-1 Aug, 18-19 Aug, 13-14 Oct, 10-11 Nov, 8-9 Dec Course fees: RN/EEN $495.00 Undergrad students $375.00 Doctors $695.00

Advanced Life Support Recertification Accredited Course: RCNA, RACGP & ACRRM

FOLLOW THE QNU ON TWITTER

14 Jun, 20 Jun, 4 Aug, 15 Oct, 12 Nov, 10 Dec Course fees: RN/EEN $265.00 Undergrad students $180.00 Doctors $330.00

More course information available from: info@healtheducation.com.au Heather James: 0407 135 332 or Anne Evans-Murray: (07) 5563 3054 All details & secure registration: www.healtheducation.com.au 48 | TQN | APRIL 2014

@qldnursesunion www.qnu.org.au

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APRIL 2014 | TQN | 49

CHOOSE PINK TO SUPPORT BREAST CANCER RESEARCH.

ME Bank’s relationship with the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) began in 2005 with its inaugural sponsorship of the Women in Super Mother’s Day Classic.

Nine years on, we’re proud of our ongoing support, raising funds for research for breast cancer prevention and cure.

Our support of NBCF extended to the launch of the PINK Debit MasterCard® in May 2011. Each time a purchase is made using the card, ME Bank donates 1 cent to NBCF research projects.

Through this card, our ongoing sponsorship of the Mother’s Day Classic and other fundraising initiatives, ME Bank has donated more than $300,000 to NBCF research since 2011.

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MasterCard and the MasterCard brand mark are registered trademarks of MasterCard International Incorporated. Tap & Go and PayPass are trademarks of MasterCard International Incorporated. Members Equity Bank Pty Ltd ABN 56 070 887 679.

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2013 winners, left to right: Helen Williamson, Mary Fromberger representing Better Together Cottage Team, and Craig Mills representing RSL Care.

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50 | TQN | APRIL 2014

www.qnu.org.au

We’re determined to create a better future for women.

9 out of 10 women don’t have enough super to fund a comfortable retirement.

Women retire with around 40% less super than men.1

There are plenty of things you can do to turn these facts in your favour – and we’re here to help you every step of the way. At QSuper, we recognise the hard work undertaken by Queensland’s medical professionals, guiding people back to health and towards a better future, and we’re committed to doing exactly the same thing for you. Whether it be through our education seminars or providing you with useful easy-to-understand information, we’re dedicated to working with you to help grow your super.

QSuper CEO and 2013 Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year, Rosemary Vilgan, is well aware of the challenges that women face, and how difficult it can be to find the time to think about super. But you can rest assured that, under Rosemary’s guidance, QSuper is determined to make it as easy as possible for you to take control and create a better lifestyle for yourself in the years ahead.

To see how we can help you feel more confident about your future, visit qsuper.qld.gov.au/superwomen today.

Rosemary Vilgan QSuper CEO and 2013 Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year

www.qnu.org.au

APRIL 2014 | TQN | 51

1 Based on research undertaken by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This product is issued by the Board of Trustees of the State Public Sector Superannuation Scheme (ABN 32 125 059 006) as trustee for the QSuper Fund (ABN 60 905 115 063). Please consider the PDS on our website to see if it is right for you. © QSuper Board of Trustees 2014. 7098 02/14.

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UPDATE YOUR OWN DETAILS AND MORE, MUCH MORE! The QNU has changed the way you update your details with the launch of an exciting new portal called MEMBERLINK. Through MEMBERLINK, as a financial member you will be able to: update your own details pay fees update your password (choose your own) print tax statements for the last three financial years

request a new membership card print your own PII letter, and contact either the Membership section, QNU Connect or send an email to our general email address.

To access MEMBERLINK visit https://member.qnu.org.au/